Six Seeds
by Mice
Summary: Annie Peckenpaugh's surgery has gone without a hitch, and a few other things as well. Bobby Drake deals more with his family during somber times. Part of the "Everyone Says I Love You" series.
1. Six Seeds, pt 1

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**Standard Mice Disclaimer**

Mice is in no way associated with the Marvel Comics Group. She is merely trying to write a story and this is all she has to show for it. A noble effort. Though she would one day like to be paid for writing, please don't send her any money (send mail to urmonkeyifudo@yeahright.com on instructions to send her money). The characters of Bobby Drake, Hank McCoy and Jubilee, belong to the Marvel Comics Group. Holland, Jacob, Bert, Cliff, Hollis, Annie, Gary, and Nan are of my own mind. Any archiving of this story that is unaware of her attention will be ily received (Read: Tikki Curse). If you e-mail her, explain your intentions to archive the story and address of your archive, she will be more than gracious and will probably do something nice for you, like bake you brownies, not to mention archiving the story. She just wants to know where she can drool over the sight of her name. If you want to e-mail her comments, do it at esily@aol.com. You'll also get some brownies out of the deal, but it's not really that great of a reward because she can't cook. 

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Six Seeds

By Mice

-Prologue-

One day, Persephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter, was outside painting flowers. She came upon a particularly ugly flower that she couldn't paint and decided that it should come out. With one mighty tug with her small, delicate body, she pulled up the plant and a large hole. A hole so large that out sprang the chariot of Hades, god of the underworld. So taken by her childlike visage and charms, he raped and abducted her to his kingdom below the earth. 

Upon not finding her child anywhere on earth, Demeter appealed to Zeus for help, but her cries fell upon deaf ears for Hades had gotten to him and bribed him first. Scorned, Demeter froze the earth for no sunshine would appear where her daughter was not. 

Noticing that nothing was flourishing after a time, Zeus sent Hermes down to the underworld to retrieve his daughter and return her to her mother. 

However, there was a glitch.

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(From the journal of Madeline Bass) 

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April 15th, 1968 

Today, a ballet dancer came to the hospital with a sprained ankle. She's very tiny and reminds me of me at age eighteen, before I fractured my left leg. Jacqueline is very optimistic about her own recovery - she says that it happens every once and a while and she's always bounced back. 

Also today, we took in another patient. He's being treated for his heart condition. I'm going to sound very corny here, but he's caused a heart condition in me. I'm smitten. He's very handsome and very strong. Actually, I'm not the only one taken with him...Marti is, too. I know that I'm not in the shape I was in two years ago, but I'm still my mother's daughter...

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Annie woke up from her check up with Dr. Emily Clay-Poole. "Is everything all right?" 

Emily grinned. "Everything is healing wonderfully, Annie. Have you noticed any difference?" 

"Well, of course! The numbness is gone, my knee joint doesn't feel like it's swollen shut on rainy days...it feels just like it did." 

Emily blinked as she took off her gloves. "Excellent, then. If there's nothing else, Annie-" 

"There is one thing...it's been over a month and, uhm...I feel really awkward saying this, Dr. Clay-Poole..." 

"Don't be nervous, Annie. You're my patient and if there is something wrong, it is my duty to fix it." 

"It's been over a month and I haven't had my period yet." 

Emily smiled. "You're probably just nervous about your new life, having new options..." Emily let that sentence hang in the air, choosing that exact moment to look her patient in the eye. "it could be quite overwhelming." 

"No, I'm all right. I've never been the stress or anxiety type..." Except now, Annie thought silently as she looked away from the doctor's eyes. There was a Pandora's Box inside Annie that she definitely did not want Emily to find the key to. 

"Don't dismiss the conclusion. Do you use birth control pills?" 

"I'm celibate at the moment." 

"Could you be pregnant?" 

Annie shook her head hard as she went over to put back on her green t-shirt and khaki pants. "I just said I was celibate!" 

"Then don't dismiss stress. You sound very excitable right now, Annie...would you like me to prescribe something to help calm you down?" 

She shook her head again, gently, and put her clothes down. The last thing she needed was a potentially suspicious girlfriend medicating her. "Maybe we should schedule a pregnancy test...just in case..."

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April 27th 

I asked William out yesterday. I was so tired of dropping hints and flirting and never knowing what was going on through his head that I just asked him out. 

Then he asked if he could have a second helping of pudding. 

When I came back he said that he was flattered, but he felt that we didn't have anything in common. Even after all our talks about music and books, he felt we had nothing in common. 

We both saw the same thing in _Catcher in the Rye_ and he feels we have nothing in common. 

Today, when I came in, he was talking to Jacqueline, the ballet dancer. She came back for a check up and to see me. She found William instead. William asked her out. She said she had to check. 

I feel sick.

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The drive up his parents street was a slow parade of a very morose Bobby Drake. He looked at the kids who were playing freely in the yard and growled as he thought, _What right do they have?_

As he turned off his car and walked up the walk, he stopped and stared at the oak tree right in front of his parent's window, where Annie knew it to be. He bit his lip until he found a salty patch as he wished he could have asked Annie to come with him, awkwardness aside. 

"Robert?" 

Bobby's head lifted up to see his father in the doorway. He was wearing jeans. William Drake did not wear jeans. He also didn't wear Birkenstocks. 

"...Dad?" 

"I'm out of clean clothes. I don't feel like washing them." 

"But the sandals..." 

William held up a hand to quiet his son's questions. "I don't particularly care for the feeling of sweat piling up in my loafers." 

Bobby nodded, wondering if those were his Birkenstocks. 

"What in the hell is on your head?" 

"It's a beret." 

"Why is it on your head?" 

Bobby began to growl. "Look, Dad, do we have to have this conversation?" 

"It's better than the one we could be having!" 

"But I want to talk about it, Dad! I want to talk about her to someone who knew her like I did!" 

"Don't look to your father for someone who knew your mother, Bobby." Jacob Bass walked up with Harpo Lubbock. "Nobody knew her like I did, Bobby. Not you, your father, or even your Nan." 

William's eyes squished together in a desperate attempt to blink his brother-in-law out. "You arrogant little-" 

With that, the man formerly known by all who loved and teased him as Weenie Man, punched William.

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April 31st 

If it weren't for Jacob, I don't know where I'd be. 

Sometimes at night, in our apartment, we talk until the morning and wish such silly things that we weren't just brother and sister, that we were twins and connected from the very beginning. 

Jacob says that William is an idiot for turning me down. I told him about how I saw how he looked at Jacqueline and how he didn't look at me. I told him about how disgusted with myself I am. 

Jacob kissed my head and held me as I cried. I don't know what I'd do without Jacob. Life without Jacob would be unbearable; I'd have no one to put band aids on all of my cuts and scrapes, both metaphorically and physically.

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Emily let the ladle slowly pour out the soup into the ivory white bowl. Hank sniffed at it; wondering what could have happened to make Emily stray from her normal macrobiotic diet. This soup had unusual bits of flesh in it that Hank wasn't quite sure if he had ever seen before in his life. 

Emily caught his eye. "It's monkey brains soup, Henry. It's a delicacy as well as an aphrodisiac." 

Hank blushed internally at that. Sex was not something he cared to think about at this moment. 

"Go on, Henry. Eat up." Emily smiled at him with an expression that was trying desperately to be warm and affectionate. 

As the spoon broke the surface of the broth, Hank thought carefully about his words. His relationship with Emily couldn't possibly continue. He had only flirted to get what he wanted, and that was happiness for his student. Somehow, he had gotten a girlfriend with the charisma of Melba toast and a night of what could have been incredible bliss with someone whom he never thought could hold his attention. Not seriously, anyway. 

Some of the broth caught on the fur surrounding his lips and Emily was quick to blot it out with a linen napkin. 

Just what was missed with Annie? A drunken tryst? A possible sweeping romance? Such possibilities seemed silly to him now. The truth was that he tried to take advantage of her. He knew - at least on some level - that she had feelings for him, and he had tried to exploit that to make him feel like a man -- like a better man. And the only thing that came out of it was two weeks full of tension between them. Xavier had been asking about her progress -- still wary of the newest pupil at the school. Hank had promised Charles that he would be solely responsible for Annie while she studied there and how there were great things in her that would be an asset to the team. 

Jean was now trying to get Annie expelled. Annie wasn't fighting it. 

Emily broke his thoughts with a small cough. She demanded a compliment on the food. 

"It's very tasty, Emily. Thank you."

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May 5th 

It's disgusting what you will do to prove a point. 

I told Jacob that if I lost fifteen pounds and got my figure back, William would ask me out. He said that if William did, he was a jerk. I said that this would just highlight that and nobody in the hospital would ever be kind to him again. I told him that it was enough incentive to me. 

Jacob wasn't as quick to put his support behind me. He said that I should lose the weight for myself and not just to prove some point. But he does support me. He knows how badly I want to do this and that I don't want anyone to tell me no. 

My brother has never told me no. I love him for that. 

He's also very happy since I introduced him to Jacqueline. They're going out on their third date in a week tonight. 

I started my "diet" while he was out on their first date. It's pretty sick, but when I was still a dancer, it worked for the girls who had trouble keeping their weight down. 

I have never had to keep my weight down, so I never did it until that night. It's funny; throwing up always seems so easy when you are carsick. I kneeled there, over the toilet for over five minutes, playing with my uvula with my index finger, but it was the smell of bleach, urine and shit in the toilet that was more effective. But not sick enough to throw up. 

That's when I saw my toothbrush by the sink. It was much longer and I wouldn't have to feel my finger getting slimy with spit every time I tried. It worked. I didn't throw up much, but I guess it's something you have to work at. Like dancing en pointe; it's something you work up to. Maybe also because I waited too long after I ate. It seems the sooner I throw up after I eat, more stuff comes up. 

I've already lost seven pounds. At this rate, I could even get to be 115lb by June!

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The results came back. Dr. Clay-Poole was fast, if not wrong. 

Annie stared at her stomach. She knew she wasn't pregnant. She was thinner now than she was a month ago, before anything happened with Bobby, before anything that had maybe happened with Hank. 

And her body told her that it was just wrong. 

Tired from the confusion, Annie knocked on the door of the only person who could help her. 

Some people have chocolate cravings. Other have the need to have macadamia nut brittle ice cream at three a.m. in the morning or else the world will cease to exist. The only reason Annie could think of as to why she absolutely had to see Bobby was that he was her macadamia nut brittle ice cream. 

"I'm grooming!" a voiced answered. 

"Please, Warren, it's important. I need to know where Bobby is." 

With that, the door swung open. "You don't deserve to know where Bobby is." 

Annie rolled her eyes. "I know about the pool you guys have going on about me, Bobby, and Hank. I know that you have a lot riding on the me and Bobby odds." 

Warren shrugged. She had a point. "He's in Long Island." 

"I need to be there." 

"When?" 

"Now." 

"Are you winning me the big money, Annie?" Warren allowed himself to smile. More for the prospect of Annie making up with Bobby and making his best friend a happy man again than for anything he bet. " 

I just need some macadamia nut brittle ice cream..."

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May 10th

...why am I so nauseous all the time? When I eat, when I don't eat, when I sit up, when I sleep, I'm so nauseous...

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Jacob and William were arguing in the living room. This is why Harpo and Bobby were in the kitchen eating cookies Madeline had made before. 

"These are amazing." 

Bobby nodded knowingly. "Yeah." 

"Is it the nutmeg or the ginger that gives them that--" 

"You know, I've never been sure...I've always thought she put in a dash of cloves--" 

"Ah can taste something like that!" 

"But no one has been able to figure out how she does it. Not even my Nan, though Lord, she has tried." 

"Wow." It was the only proper homage Harpo could give. 

Bobby cleared his throat and went to the refrigerator for something to drink. "So, you're dating Jubilee..." 

"Well, yes, sir." 

"Don't call me sir." 

"Okay, Bobby." 

"And don't call me Bobby." 

"Mr. Drake?" 

"I don't like that, either." 

"Robert?" 

"Too plain." 

"Sir Robert?" 

"Doesn't offend me. Let's do it." 

Harpo nodded. "Sir Robert, then." 

Bobby poured himself some ice tea from the fridge, or what he thought could be ice tea. If his father could run out of clean clothes in ten hours, then who knows what else could go wrong. "What are your intentions towards my sparkler?" 

"Nothing but the purest kind." 

Bobby scoffed. "Good luck, kid. Good luck." 

"Excuse me?" 

"I had pure intentions once, Harpo. Beautiful, ivory intentions. I once saw a woman I fantasized having children with. I actually fantasized about having children with a woman!" 

"That's the traditional way of doing it." 

"Do you know what she did to me, Harpo? After I made love to her in a way that would make Lord Byron arise from the dead just so he could write about it? Told her I loved her?" 

"Did she spurn you, Sir Robert?" 

"She went after my best friend after breaking up with me!" Bobby held up his hand. "Do you know what I did with her with this hand?" 

Harpo panicked -- forgetting for a split second that he was an empath and knew perfectly well that Bobby Drake meant that he had caressed his lady's face with extreme gentleness and passion that he never thought he could possess, but the only thing that stood out in Harpo's mind was that Bobby's code name was the Iceman, and he once saw a porn where they had used ice. 

Lord, did they use ice. 

So the only thing Harpo could say to counteract this sudden appearance of frozen fondling in his mind was to blurt out, "Ah'm a champion ballroom dancer and Ah have pretty hair!" 

This first impressed Bobby, then annoyed him. Finally, he settled for confused. "How does this tie into me and my passion for Annie?" 

"It doesn't...really...but, Ah had this nasty flash in mah head when you held up your hand, and you're the Iceman--" 

"You saw the porn with the ice--" 

"Yeah! And while it was pretty interesting, you don't want to imagine your cousin--" 

"--Doing what they did with ice--" 

"Yeah!" 

"...LORD, what they did with that ice." Bobby concluded. For a moment, Bobby looked at Harpo. "You look a lot like him." 

"Who?" 

"Cliff." Bobby began to smile. "You are mellow, just like he was." 

Harpo nodded slowly, intrigued by his cousins that he had never met. "What about Holland?" 

"That's a question scientists have been wanting to know for centuries."

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July 15th

William just told me that he loves me! I don't know when I've felt so happy!

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Jacob gently sat the ice on William's eye, which William smirked at. 

"You have a good swing there, Jacob." 

"Well, you make an incredibly soft punching bag, William." 

William and Jacob continued to glare at each other until the mantle clock's second hand had revolved four times around the clock face. Jacob wanted to give William another black eye to match his other. It was something Jacob had wanted to do ever since he and Maddie had begun to date. The only reason he had resisted for so long was that Maddie had made him promise her that he wouldn't and it was important for Maddie to have someone who wouldn't tell her no. It didn't stop Jacob from having held that William Drake was the biggest hypocrite he had ever met and marrying his sister had proved that. He was sexist, racist, and more Catholic than the Pope. 

As much as he hated to admit it, with the death of his sister, Jacob Bass had finally achieved one of his life long goals. 

William cleared his throat uncomfortably, searching for something to bring out the mollified Jacob that used to live right around the corner who spent fifteen minutes and two antacid tablets picking out his tie. "Remember that barbeque we had for your parents' fortieth anniversary? That was something." 

"Remember when you slept with my wife and cheated on your wife who was my sister? Now that was something." 

William promptly shut up and refrained from adding anything else. 

"How much of an idiot do you take me for, William?" 

"She slept around before-" 

"So did I." Jacob smiled as he saw the stunned expression on his brother in-law's face. "With her sister. In fact, it was the one that didn't want to sleep with you." 

William's shocked face twisted into contempt. "Who are you talking about?" He knew. And he hated it. 

"Jacqueline Lubbock. The dancer." He gingerly tapped his knee as he talked, to help alleviate any of the discomfort that he was beginning to feel. The last thing he needed while confronting his brother in-law was to throw up. "You remember Holl's twin sisters, Julia and Jacqueline." 

William shrugged. "Hollis didn't like them very much, as I recall." 

"They were a bit different from the others, for sure. When they turned eighteen, they messed up their family's five generation monogram." 

William gave a nod as he remembered Hollis talking about her "deplorable" little sisters, Holda and Hilda. He thought the name changes were for the better, but he never told her that. 

"Harpo over there is Julia's." Jacob grinned as he laid out his cards. "He's mine, too. You're not the only one who can knock them up, William. Did you ever tell Maddie about that?" 

"Yes." She hadn't told him. 

"I know you, William. Unfortunately, I know you." Jacob looked over to the kitchen where his youngest son and his only nephew were talking. Jacob could sense them bonding, being his mother's child. People used to say that the Bass family was a bit peculiar, and it was true. He came from one of the oldest established family of empaths in modern history. He had it, his mother had it, Maddie had it. His son Harpo had it in overwhelming spades. And it was because of all this, Jacob knew William. He spent the past thirty plus years sensing William's treachery against his sister. It was enough to turn him into an ill man. "William, did you ever tell her about you and Hollis when she was awake?" 

He shook his head no. 

"Did you think she never knew?" 

"She couldn't have." 

"Maddie knew everything." 

"Oh." 

"And she stayed with you." 

"Oh." 

"She put up with you all these years, stood there as you made fun of your own son, knowing that you had another, trying to please you for almost forty years-" Jacob bit his lip as his nausea acted up, a bile tasting reminder of what this man had caused his sister to do. "And you never gave a damn about her. You just treated her like a kitchen appliance. Not anymore, William. You don't get that right anymore." 

"I know what I did to Maddie was disgusting, Jacob," William began to defend himself, upset that he had let him get this far without sticking up for himself, "and I'd do anything to take it back-" 

"It's not just about what you did to Maddie, you ignorant prick! You knocked up my wife who left my children! You try telling two children that their mother never really cared and try being everything so they won't miss her!" Jacob took a deep breath. He could feel his lunch in his throat. "And it's about what you did to Maddie. What you didn't know." 

"What, Maddie cheated on me? Great family you guys have, great family." 

Jacob shook his head, enraged that his brother in-law didnt get it. "Why did you go out with my sister? Why did you ever have to ask her out?" 

"She was pretty-" 

"She was always pretty. And then-" Jacob put a hand to his mouth. "Excuse me." 

William began to smile at the reemergence of his brother in-law as Jacob made his way to the bathroom. Seeing William's smile reflected in a picture frame, he head for his bedroom and threw up in William's best pair of shoes. 

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I may have problems with confrontations, Jacob thought as he spied a pair of well-tailored slacks on his second wave of nausea, _but I'm nobody's weenie. Not anymore._

Oblivious, William made his way into the kitchen where his eyes were treated to his son and Harpo doing the Fox Trot with Harpo leading. 

"Goddamn it, Jacob, you're not here for half an hour and you made my boy and your boy faggots! Incestuous faggots, fantastic! Were all going to hell!" 

Just then, a dark shadow loomed over the Drake house.

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August 11th 

I feel so stupid! To help with my weight loss, I tried not eating all day...okay, three days. So when William took me to meet his parents and his father held his hand out to shake it, I passed out! Luckily, William thinks he needs to take care of me that much more. That I'm okay with.

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Four men stood in the kitchen, each a little afraid of what was going to happen next. 

A meek knock was heard in the dead silence of the kitchen. Only Bobby was brave enough to answer, though only in a high castrati voice. "Who is it?" 

"Bobby? It's Annie...is this a bad time?" 

Bobby thought for a moment. If this was Armageddon, he would like to be with Annie. "It's okay. Come in--wait! Is there an angel of death out there with you?" 

After a slight mumble that no one could make out, Annie answered back. "Warren says he doesn't do that anymore." 

Bobby took a moment to feel stupid. "Okay, come in." 

Warren strutted his way inside, eager to make fun of his friend. "Bobby, how many times have you flown in the Blackbird?" 

"Warren, how many times have I been outside the Blackbird when it's hovering outside my childhood home! It's pretty damn creepy! No wonder people are always screaming!" Bobby popped his head outside. "Jesus, Warren, it's still hovering! Who's piloting that thing? Could you tell them to go away and to stop scaring people? Could you tell them to do that?" 

Warren looked around inside the darkened Drake house. It did have a creepy feeling about it, and it caused him to shiver. 

"See, you think it's creepy, too!" 

"Do not!" 

"Then what was that shiver for!" 

"I was getting my groove on." 

"You don't have a groove!" 

Warren sniffed at the air, not liking being challenged like this. "I do not need to be accused of anything here. I selflessly came here to drop Annie off because she needed to be here. My work is done." With that, Warren spun around and began to exit the Drake home, but not before Harpo spoke up. 

"Wait, you're Warren Worthington, the III!" 

Warren grinned. "Yes I am." 

"You de-pantsed me at a barbeque our families once had together." 

"I de-pantsed many, lad. So I'm sure I did." With that, Warren and the Blackbird made their exit and Annie made her entrance. 

William was the first to speak. "Who are you?" 

"Dad, this is Annie. Annie, my dad." 

Annie simply waved to his father, not wanting to shake his hand after knowing what type of man he was. 

Bobby led Annie upstairs and inside his room where he sat her on the bed. "Are you all right?" 

She shook her head. 

"Did you already talk to Hank about this?" 

Annie shook her head again. 

Bobby pointed to the patch of bed beside her. "Would you mind if I sat there?" 

Annie looked up at him wordlessly. He sat. She immediately put her head on his shoulder and began to sob. 

"What's wrong?" Bobby had a good guess that she just didn't miss him that much. 

"I'm pregnant." 

Bobby felt an anvil drop in his stomach. 

"Is it mine?" 

Annie tried to say yes. She tried saying no. Her silence was all Bobby needed. 

"You don't know." 

She finally spoke. "I don't know anything, Bobby!" Her sobbing increased. "I swear that Hank and I didn't do anything, I swear that we didn't, but I don't remember! I try to think about that night, but nothing comes. It's like it was cut out of my head and--" 

"And what, Annie?" 

Annie's weight collapsed on his lap. Her muscles were lax, as if they had been holding a tremendous weight in them for weeks and now, they chose to let go. "Are you still here, Bobby? I can't feel you." 

Bobby's worry increased as her voice was confused and misplaced. "Annie, are you okay?" 

"My mom's here, Bobby. I can see her, can you?" 

"I'm going to call an ambulance, Annie. Your mother's dead." 

"I'd like to think that, but she tells me different." Annie's voice became looser now. Not like it was drunk, but more drugged. "She tells me things. She's the one who told me that your father was a cheater." 

Bobby picked up his old phone, feeling very stupid at all the Duran Duran stickers he put on there as a youth. But then he never thought he had to use this phone to call 911 about his nearly passed out and pregnant ex-girlfriend. "She knew about that, huh?" 

"She said you'd do the same and to stay away. Just like Lindsay. She said you'd hurt me." 

Bobby held the phone away from his ear tenetively, not wanting to look at her. "Do you always listen to what your mother says?" 

"Sure. She's the only mother I have...Bobby, I hurt right now...a lot..." 

Bobby carefully looked back to Annie and saw that previously khaki pants were now very red around the crotch and further down.

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August 16th 

The doctor says that I'll be fine, as long as I actually eat my food instead of throwing it up. He gave me a diet to use instead of my methods. I don't care right now. William asked me to marry him.

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Dr. Gloria Guest stepped out of the examination room. This was the second time in twenty-four hours that she had seen William Drake. "Bobby? Your friend is fine and you can go in and talk to her in a few moments." 

"Uh, Gloria...is she okay?" 

Gloria nodded. "You mean is she speaking more coherently than before? She is, Bobby. She is." 

William cleared his throat. "What exactly happened?" 

"She was exhausted. This woman just underwent major surgery. She shouldn't be up and about like she was." 

"How was she going to get better if she was never up and do her physical therapy, Gloria? That's why she had her surgery, so she could be physically active again!" 

Gloria just stared at her grade school friend for a few moments. "Bobby, just what surgery did she just have done to her?" 

"This, uh, thing...that repaired...uh...stuff...in her knee." 

Gloria nodded. She did see that in the x-rays. 

"Does this have to do with her being pregnant?" 

William's eyes bulged. "Pregnant! Is it yours, Bobby? Please tell me it's not yours!" 

"It could be mine--" 

"Goddamn it!" 

"Knock it off, both of you!" Gloria yelled. "Nobody is pregnant." 

A look of relief flushed over the elder and younger Drake's features. 

"There is no way she could be pregnant, Bobby." 

Bobby smiled a little. "Well, there is a way..." 

"Not without her ovaries and her uterus there isn't." 

That bit confused Bobby. "What do you mean?" 

"This woman, on top of having a knee surgery done, had a complete hysterectomy done two weeks ago."

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(From the Journal of Dr. Emily Clay-Poole) 

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August 24th, 

Henry came over and I served him dinner. He then proceeded to tell me that he no longer wished to meet my acquaintance and that we would be no longer be seeing one another. I suspected this much, which was why I made sure not to cook it until tonight. I had been saving those scraps for two weeks, biding my time before preparing them carefully. It just goes to show that men of modern science are truly clueless when it comes to a woman's anatomy if they can confuse their reproductive track for a monkey brains soup.


	2. Six Seeds, pt 2

**Standard Mice Disclaimer**  
  
Mice is in no way associated with the Marvel Comics Group. She is merely trying to write a story and this is all she has to show for it. A noble effort. Though she would one day like to be paid for writing, please don't send her any money (send mail to urmonkeyifudo@yeahright.com on instructions to send her money). The characters of Bobby Drake, Hank McCoy and Jubilee, belong to the Marvel Comics Group. Harpo, Emily, and Annie are of my own mind. Any archiving of this story that is unaware of her attention will be ily received (Read: Tikki Curse). If you e-mail her, explain your intentions to archive the story and address of your archive, she will be more than gracious and will probably do something nice for you, like bake you brownies, not to mention archiving the story. She just wants to know where she can drool over the sight of her name. If you want to e-mail her comments, do it at esily@aol.com. You'll also get some brownies out of the deal, but it's not really that great of a reward because she can't cook.   
  
  
Six Seeds, pt. 2  
  
By Mice  
  
Prologue.  
  
And as Demeter scoured the earth in search of her daughter Persephone, she came upon a small boy. At first she smiled at him warmly, for Demeter was of the earth. But the longer she stared at his childish visage, the more she was reminded of her own daughter and wept.   
  
The boy, taken aback by this sight, began to laugh. He didn't know what else to do, he had never seen a grown up cry. Alive, he didn't know that the grown up he was mocking was a goddess.   
  
In death is another story.  
  
-1-  
  
From the Journal of Jubilation Lee  
  
March 4th, 2002  
  
I'm on a plane. Two hours ago, I had no intention on being on a plane.  
  
I guess life has just got to a point where it's getting to be too much...and it's not even life, just stupid love or lust, or whatever the hell you call it. With Ev's attention focused on stupid Marnie, I was going to go visit Bobby, but Bobby's now in California.   
  
Which is why I'm on a plane and why I'm love's bitch.  
  
-2-  
  
Annie Peckenpaugh stared at herself from the mirror on the other side of the bed in her bedroom. She barely remembered when she got there. She couldn't say that she cared. All she cared about was that area. She stared at it in the mirror, super-imposing the comical sketches she had seen in several different anatomy books onto her lower section. She couldn't imagine them not there. It felt like they were there.  
  
A hand drifted down. There was nothing there.  
  
She didn't know how long she had been in her bedroom. She remembered going to see Bobby, then winding up at the hospital. She didn't remember how she wound up back at the mansion. It was like a record playing in the background and skipping in a certain section.  
  
Annie slowly placed her feet on the ground and stood up and walked to the mirror. There was something she needed to do.  
  
Ê  
  
Ê  
  
Ê  
  
Ê  
  
-3-  
  
Despite the fantastic scene of two women mauling themselves on stage to a rather inventive performance of Pat Benatar's "We Belong"", Bobby found karaoke night at his old haunt lacking in entertainment. Especially since he saw Hank in the corner trying to screw his courage up to go over and talk to him.  
  
It was a bad idea to come tonight, Bobby thought as he picked up his jacket. As he turned to leave, he found a grinning Jubilee standing directly in his path.  
  
"Does anybody card anymore?""  
  
Jubilee shrugged.   
  
"Then answer me this, did they invent beaming technology?""   
  
"What?""   
  
"You Massachusetts people...always being here in the flash of an eye and all that. It takes longer to drive from the mansion to Salem Center than the way you guys commute from Boston.""   
  
"Actually, I got into Long Island around eleven a.m. this morning.""   
  
Bobby smiled and nodded. "Harpo.""   
  
"Yeah, he's pretty excited to be learning more about his Aunt Maddie.""   
  
"He's a good kid."" Bobby shook his head. "You know, sometimes when I think of my family, it becomes almost incestuous. I can practically hear the theme from Deliverance in my head...""   
  
Jubilee smiled. "How are you holding up, Frosted Flakes?""   
  
"I'll get there. There's just been a lot of information to process in the past week.""   
  
"How's Annie?""   
  
"Mentally, worse than I. She hasn't talked much to anyone, and when she does, it's like she's talking from somewhere else. Physically, she's fine.""   
  
"Does anyone know where Clay-Poole is?""   
  
Bobby motioned to Hank in the corner, who had not yet realized Bobby knew he was there. "Hank's looking, or so Warren tells me.""   
  
"Is it okay if I talk to you?""   
  
Ê  
  
Ê  
  
Ê  
  
Bobby looked and blinked, fully realizing what he was seeing and hearing. Before him was Jubilee, his sparkler and partner in crime -- time couldn't change that -- but she wore black. All black. And five minutes had gone by without a hint of her snarky nature. Something was amiss. "Jubilee? Are you okay?""   
  
"I needed to talk to you.""   
  
"What happened?""   
  
"There's something you should probably know.""   
  
Bobby felt a lump in his throat with that phrase. "What happened? is it Annie? My Dad?"  
  
"It's about you and me, Bobby.""   
  
-4-  
  
Instead of asking Warren for information, Annie used her instincts to get to the karaoke bar. Sure enough, his car was there.   
  
Just before she walked into the bar, she caught her reflection in a window. She would have shown up in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, but she felt the need more than ever for something that made her feel more feminine. The outfit was a body hugging, two-piece black pant and sleeveless shirt. She opted out of her usual pair of Converse sneakers for a pair of black heels. She had used what make up she had and had even attempted to do something with her hair. Despite the lack of technical equipment, she felt incredibly womanly.  
  
Annie walked through the entrance and looked around to see if she could see him. He was there in the corner, alone, and watching Bobby talk to Jubilee.  
  
That part she hadn't counted on.  
  
-5-  
  
Hank wished he could finish off the scotch that he had been nursing all evening. Maybe I could finally go over there and just talk to Bobby, he thought while looking at its nearly full contents.   
  
"Hank?"  
  
At first, he thought he was imagining things. He hadn't heard that voice in over a month. At first, it was because he was ashamed that he had taken advantage of her. Later, he knew that it was his fault for what happened to her. "You don't have to talk to me, Annie."  
  
"I came here to find you."  
  
"I don't have anything to say to you."  
  
"You're blaming yourself."  
  
Hank laughed. "My only regret is that I should have been blaming myself sooner. Ever since I called Emily at the beginning of this, I should have known."  
  
Annie shook her head. "Hank, no one could have known that she was a psycho."  
  
"I'm an Avenger, an X-Man, a supposed hero. It is my job to find psychos and protect people from them!"  
  
"Last I checked, you weren't the only hero in the world." Annie tried to put a hand on his shoulder, but he batted it away. She nodded her head. "You hate me."  
  
This sobered Hank from his somberness. "I have never hated you."  
  
"You haven't talked to me since we spent that night together!"  
  
"I sent you flowers both times you were in the hospital." It was lame and he knew it.  
  
"You think flowers are an acceptable stand in for you?"   
  
"I let you down."  
  
"How?"  
  
"With Emily. I brought her to you and this happened."  
  
She looked for a smooth way to preface her next question, but finding none, she blurted out, "Did we sleep together?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because you preferred Bobby over me."  
  
-6-  
  
"So I came back with Nan, who fell asleep immediately. Before going to bed myself, before I got out of my chiffon dress, I came in to see how you were, and you, my friend, were not good. You were drunk and bleeding, as well as crying. I sat with you for a while, trying to comfort you, and then you kissed me."  
  
  
  
"I did what?"  
  
"Bobby, you were drunk and--how many women have said that to you lately, by the way?"  
  
Bobby growled. "That's not the issue. Jubilee, I'm sorry. If I were sober--"  
  
"You wouldn't have." Jubilee's face fell. "I know."  
  
"I'm sure that you don't honestly regret having my drunken advances being insincere."  
  
Jubilee looked up to his eyes. "Have you ever had a crush on someone for so long that you just wish with every fiber of your being that it could work out, despite the fact that it could never, ever work?"  
  
"I felt that way about Lady Jay from G.I. Joe."  
  
"Bobby! This isn't about animated red heads! Do you understand what I'm saying?" Jubilee looked at Bobby to see if he understood what she was saying.  
  
"Seriously, does no one card anymore?"  
  
Jubilee shook her head. "I wish you could be serious just this once, BobbyÉ" Just then, she felt a very familiar hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Hi, Jubilee." She turned around to see Harpo Lubbock looming behind her.  
  
-7-  
  
"I did not."  
  
"You did, too."  
  
"I didn't feel that way about him."  
  
"Sure you didn't."  
  
"He was my closest friend at Xaviers!"  
  
Hank pouted. "I thought I was!"  
  
"No, you idiot! Bobby was my friend, you wereÉ" Annie let her hands shake a bit to find the right words. "I wanted you."  
  
Hank now found it easy to down his Scotch. "Annie--"  
  
"No! Don't say that! Don't try to talk me out of it! I care about you, Hank. When you walked into my diner, when you smiled at me, when I first felt your fur, I have cared about you! You told me things like I was smart, and you were always so kind and affectionate to me. You went out of your way to make me feel welcome. Maybe it was stupid of me to do, but at the time, I had never felt that way about Bobby. I only had those thoughts over you. Maybe you were drunk and didn't know what you were doing, but even though I was most certainly drunk, I knew that I wanted you.   
  
"It has been driving me nuts because I couldn't remember if anything had happened. It hurt me to think that we wound up together, if only for a night, and that I couldn't remember it."  
  
Hank's voice became bitter. "You slept with Bobby. If you liked me so much, why did you do that?"  
  
"I was mad at you for going after Clay-Drool. I was lonely and Bobby reminded me of you."  
  
Hank nodded in understanding. "Bobby loves you. And I hurt him by pursuing you."  
  
"I hurt him because used him." Annie swallowed. "I never thought that I could do that to another person, after being used for so longÉI'm horrible."  
  
"No, I am."  
  
"Why are you horrible?"  
  
"I used Emily, Annie. I knew she had always had feelings for me and I used that so you could get better. It just went too far."  
  
Annie paled. "You slept with her for that?"  
  
He shook his head. "I couldn't." He motioned for the bartender to give him another scotch. "Am I still the same man you care for? Bobby would never do that."  
  
"I still care about you, Hank." Annie turned her head to where Bobby was. "Bobby isn't perfect, either."  
  
-8-  
  
Jubilee and Harpo were left alone as Bobby made his way to the microphone. Making sure Bobby was out of earshot, Jubilee spoke to Harpo. "I told him that he kissed me."  
  
"Are you sure that you don't want to tell him everything?"  
  
She shook her head. "His cousin died, he saw his aunt, Annie rejected him, his best friend betrayed him, and his mother just diedÉa guy can only go through so much without wanting to end it all, you know?"  
  
"Why tell him that?"  
  
"In case he did remember. At least he has my sober version to reassure him that he didn't do anything."  
  
Harpo nodded, then cupped her face to kiss her. "Ah'm glad you told me."  
  
"I had to tell someone. Someone who wasn't going to want to kill him or turn him in. I'm surprised it was my boyfriend."  
  
"No matter what you go through in life, Jubilee, you have me."  
  
"Weird."  
  
"Ah was hoping you were going to say that it was sweet--"  
  
"No, it wasÉyou just remind me of Jacob just then."  
  
Harpo smiled silently.  
  
"I talked to the guy when I was in LA with BobbyÉthe man is probably the most loyal guy I've ever met. At first, I thought he was just a pushover--"  
  
"He stands by those he loves." Harpo nodded. "You know him better than Ah do."  
  
Jubilee blinked. "He's your father."  
  
"Ah guess. Ah always thought Claudia was my father."  
  
Jubilee blinked again. "HarpoÉstart talking. And make it make sense."  
  
"My mom's a lesbian. Her partner is Claudia. JacobÉhelped out."  
  
"I can't believe there was ever a time when I thought Bobby had the normal familyÉ"  
  
-9-  
  
Hank finished his third scotch. "What are you saying, Annie?"  
  
"I'm saying I miss you, Hank. I want to talk with you again, like we used to."  
  
Hank allowed himself a small smile. "And do you still want me?"  
  
Annie's attention went from Hank to the stage where Bobby took the microphone. "Can Bobby sing?"  
  
Hank laughed. "No. I've tried everything to get him to realize that, too, but no luck."  
  
Annie's eyes widened as she reached for a cocktail napkin. "Do you have a pen?"  
  
Hank took out a pen from his jacket. "What's wrong?"  
  
"It's an anagram that I've been working on for a while."  
  
As Annie scribbled on the napkin, Bobby began his song.  
  
-10-  
  
The person running the karaoke -- the KJ -- was groaning as he pushed play on the CD. There were just some people who were not meant to sing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" sober or drunk. The KJ knew that Bobby Drake was one of these people. The guy couldn't carry a tune if it had handles, he thought as the intro began.  
  
"All right, everybody!" Bobby said to the crowd in a cockney accent that he couldn't pull off, but liked doing anyway. "This goes out to all the lonely people out there who need some light in the dark!" Someone threw a cup at him. He was certain that it was Jubilee.  
  
"Turn around--"  
  
"Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you're never coming around," a female voice joined him. Not a dazzling or amazing voice, but one that was a damn site better than Bobby's.  
  
"Turn around--"  
  
"Every now and then I get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears."  
  
"Turn around--" This time, Bobby did and saw that he had Annie as back up.  
  
"Every now and then I get a little bit nervous that the best of all the years have gone by."  
  
"Turn around--"  
  
"Every now and then I get a little bit terrified and then I see the look in your eyes."  
  
Bobby grinned as he saw Annie grinning. From the past week, he never thought he'd see that again. "Turn around, bright eyes!"  
  
"Every now and then I fall apart."  
  
"Sell it!" Bobby loudly whispered to her before her next line. "Turn around, bright eyes!"  
  
  
  
Annie turned around dramatically and went to her knees. "Every now and then I fall apart!"  
  
Bobby began to improvise. "What do you need tonight?" he shouted.  
  
"And I need you now tonight?"  
  
"How much?"  
  
  
  
"And I need you more than ever!"  
  
Before Bobby got a word in edgewise, Annie wrapped her arms tight around him. "And if you only hold me tight, we'll be holding on forever!"  
  
"Or until I need breath!" Bobby quipped to the audience as he joined Annie in on the second part.  
  
"And we'll only be making it right! Cause we'll never be wrong together. We can take it to the end of the line. Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time. I don't know what to do and I'm always in the dark, we're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks. I really need you tonight--"  
  
"Moi?" Bobby asked.  
  
"Toi!" Annie answered.  
  
"Forever's gonna start tonight, forever's gonna start tonightÉ"   
  
-11-  
  
Jubilee turned green. "So this is why they card at karaoke barsÉ"  
  
-12-  
  
Bobby escorted Annie to his table, still hugging her from their onstage coup. "I didn't even know you were here!"  
  
"I needed to talk to Hank."  
  
Bobby's grip on her loosened as he changed the topic. "We did good. Thanks for joining in with me."  
  
Annie giggled. "Hank said you'd need it."  
  
"What else did Hank say?"  
  
"That we didn't sleep together." Annie clarified, "Hank and IÉwe didn't. I needed to know for sure."  
  
"You love him."  
  
"I do not."  
  
"Yes you do."  
  
"I want him."  
  
"See?"  
  
Annie shook her head. "Lust isn't love, Bobby."  
  
That sounds familiar, Bobby thought. "You lust after Hank, then."  
  
"Yeah. Like you lust after Lady Jay."  
  
Bobby smiled at that. "You remembered!"  
  
"I'm your Ivy Greeneth, Bobby. I remember everything."  
  
Bobby blushed. "You figured out the anagram."  
  
Annie nodded. "I was sitting over there with Hank when I knew what it was. I came here to tell him that I wanted him in my life."  
  
Bobby stopped breathing.  
  
"It sounds funny, doesn't it? I couldn't put it any other way. I fancy you, I like youÉevery combination I thought of sounded so junior -- breathe, Bobby -- high."  
  
"What are you saying?"  
  
"I have a crush on Hank. One of those highly unattainable crushes that are best left unattainable. No matter what he feels about me, I couldn't handle anything more than a simple crush."  
  
Bobby relaxed a tiny bit. "It's not Lady Jay, butÉ"  
  
"He's an Avenger. I'm an ex-waitress. God, I've been on welfare at one point in my life. I'll never be good enough for him."  
  
"Did he say that?" Bobby said angrily. "Where is he, where is that prejudiced fur ball?"  
  
"Bobby, those are my feelings. Not his." She took his hand. "I never feel that way around you." She leaned in closer to whisper in his ear. "When I thought I was pregnant, I was hoping you were the father. That's why I went to you. I never told Hank about it."  
  
Bobby took his hand away. "Annie, I'm going to be honest with you. I don't like where this is going. You know I love you, and sitting here and hanging out with youÉAnnie, it's great but all it's doing is giving me hope. After you dumped me, people at the Ben and Jerry's in Salem Center knew me by my jimmies. So don't continue ifÉ" Bobby couldn't complete the sentence. "Just don't continue."  
  
"I want you. I miss you. If you give me some time and room, I will love you. Just not in twenty-four hours."  
  
Bobby stopped himself before reaching out to her. "Are you going to take this back tomorrow?"  
  
"Are you going to be patient with me?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Is it okay that IÉthat I don't have--?" Annie made a gesture so she wouldn't have to say it out loud.  
  
Bobby went to her and kissed her head. "You look almost too fertile. I'm afraid that just being near you that you're going to have octoplets."  
  
-13-  
  
  
  
Hank stared at Annie and Bobby, not sure whether to be happy for them or upset. He settled for his cell phone. "Jean? It's Hank. I'm coming home and wanted to know if wanted to talk. And, if you happened to have any more apple pie, I wouldn't feel at all put out if you fed some to me. Heated. With ice cream on itÉmaybe with a bit of a caramel drizzle on itÉ"  
  
-14-  
  
March 8th  
  
I woke up before Bobby. I cleaned myself up in the shower. I have no clue how Bobby will react in the morning. Maybe he was drunk enough to forget that I was even there.  
  
I know I shouldn't have taken advantage of him, but it was too hard not to. I think he thought I was Opal. In any case, there's just no way around it. I've thought about what it might be like plenty of times, but now that it has happenedÉthere's just no going back. I don't know how I'm going to keep this a secret from WolvieÉI scrubbed myself raw in the shower and used too many different kinds of "special" soaps. What if he smells him on me? I mean, I can still smell it.  
  
I have to take a plane home with this guy, talk to him, and pretend like nothing happened. Even if the minor has had a crush on him for years, I doubt anyone would be pleased to find out that Bobby Drake had sex with a minor while drunk. 


	3. Six Seeds, pt 3

Six Seeds, pt. 3

By Mice

-1-

Persephone made it a habit of visiting all of the Underworld to pass the time. Today, she was in a garden where a little boy was gardening. She smiled as she went to join him.

Soon, it grew hot and the boy loudly proclaimed his hunger. He went to a pomegranate, opened it, and began to eat the seeds from it. With his face stained with a rich, magenta color, he offered it to her.

Persephone was quite hungry. She had been so upset after she was torn away from her mother that she refused to eat or take delight whenever Hades was around. But pomegranates were her favorite fruit and the kid looked trustworthy. Soon, images of the food that Hades had prepared for her saturated themselves in her mind, and no matter what she did, she couldn't get them out of her head and she knew she had to eat something.

She popped six seeds into her mouth. She didn't even stop for water.

-2-

Annie Peckenpaugh took a long drink of water to force down the pills she had just taken. Bobby Drake watched with admiration and care. "Are you sure you should be taking these, Annie?"

Annie wiped her mouth on the sleeve of her pajamas. "They're my benzodiazepines. It's to help me sleep while my hormones are still trying to find some balance."

Bobby grabbed the pill bottle with interest. "Clay-Poole wrote out the prescription...are you sure this is wise?"

"I asked Hank about it the other night. Nothing in my own research suggested that it was overtly bad. I got the prescription at the drug store. And Hank told me just to be careful about what I take them with." 

"Still..."

"I'm not Marilyn Monroe, Bobby. I'm not taking pills like M&M's and downing them with pink champagne. I'm taking a sedative because sometimes my body can't sleep. It refuses to sleep." Annie let out a satisfying yawn as she got in the bed. "I don't know if it's because of my hormones or because I have this fear that something else is going to happen to me." She patted a place beside her. "Are you going to join me?"

Bobby's eyes lit up. "You want me to sleep with you?"

"If by sleep you mean actual sleep, yes. I would like nothing more." Annie lifted her hand to point at him. "But don't think for one moment that you're going to get me out of my Strawberry Shortcake flannel pajamas."

He climbed into bed and kissed her head. "I love eating strawberry shortcake."

Annie flinched and shook her head. "That sounded way too much like a child molester."

"Does that mean I'm out of your bed tonight?"

"No. I need someone to protect me from the other child molester's out there." She cuddled up to his nice, cool body. 

"Well, you have all five feet and eight inches of me to do just that."

"Why is everything you're saying sound remotely sexual to me tonight?"

"Tonight? Just tonight? Man, am I ever bad at this..."

Annie giggled into his chest. "Thank you, Bobby."

"What for?"

"Being here. Being patient." Her right hand found his left and her fingers became tangled in his. "You stay up and listen to me until I fall asleep and you're just so patient about it, especially with everything you're going through. Thank you."

Bobby kissed the top of her forehead as he felt her breathing slow down and a soft snore coming on. He looked at the book that was on the nightstand, a gift from his Uncle Jacob. It was a handsome leather bound blank book that his mother used as a journal. In it were her thoughts, some recipes, and her insight. All of which he could have lived a better life without knowing.

This wasn't what started the insomnia, though. That had started almost a month ago after Annie had broken up with him. It didn't have much to do with Annie, but something about it triggered something in his mind. The image of his aunt, Hollis Lubbock, beating him black and blue with a belt, kept him from wanting to sleep. Bobby had talked to Jean about it, but wasn't able to say whether or not it was a memory or real after doing so. In fact, he didn't have much of a memory of what happened for the next six months after he caught his father and his aunt having sex.

Bobby had tried many things to deal with the insomnia; the ineffective blue pills bought at the grocery store, warm milk, warm milk with brandy (his grandmother's suggestion), reading until his eyes couldn't take much more. Then he tried staying up for twenty-four hours, hoping that it would make him tired enough to want to sleep.

It didn't.

At one point, he tried to freeze himself into a sleep. For anyone else, they would have ended up with hypothermia. For Bobby, it was just a way to have his sheets frozen stuck to his legs.

Then, illuminated by the moonlight, Bobby saw the bottle of his girlfriend's benzodiazepine.

-3-

"Danger Room? Billions of dollars or a lot of Shi'ar nookie. Cup of coffee: two dollars. Watching Annie Peckenpaugh in skin tight spandex just after the break of dawn? Priceless."

Annie turned her attention to the control room and snarled. There were other places she'd rather be at seven a.m. in the morning and more clothes she'd like to be wearing as well. "You forgot one, Bobby."

"Oh?"

"Running a tired marketing gag into the ground because boyfriend can't come up with his own joke? Ridiculous."

"Someone's cranky!" Bobby sipped his coffee comfortably in the control room. "I got to tell you, Annie, I like being up here a lot more than I like being down there."

Annie glared at the control room, which she then re-dubbed, "The VIP Lounge". Bobby, Professor Xavier, Scott and Jean Summers were all there, along with Hank. "You don't know how much I wish right now how badly I wish I could wipe that smirk off your face, Bobby. Preferably with sulfuric acid." The early hour loosened her tongue to talk freely around the two she feared most in the school.

Hank grabbed Annie's attention, while maintaining a safe distance away from Bobby. "All right, Annie. You've seen past training videos of Danger Room sessions. We're going to see how much you've retained. Are you ready?"

Annie took a breath. "I'm ready."

The simulation began.

-4-

Bobby knocked slowly on the door, hoping to disguise his knock, which was usually a mass barrage of thuds.

"Come in."

The door creaked open very slowly and Bobby slid a hand in the crack and waved.

"The rest of you may enter as well."

Bobby reluctantly stepped through the doorway. "Am I disturbing you?"

-5-

Annie threw rocks at nothing. She desperately needed something to do with her hands before trying to strangle herself to death from the embarrassment that had just occurred. Sitting up on a grassy knoll seemed to be the thing.

"Stupid," she swore at herself. "You know how to move, Annie, you can see it so clearly...why can't you do it?" She threw another rock. The worst part of the exercise was the look on Xavier's face. You did not need to be a mind reader to figure that one out.

She got up and glared at the stupid blue and yellow thing they had made her wear. "I'm a Jane Fonda work out video!" she cursed.

"At least Jane Fonda can move right," a deep voice snarked from behind her.

Annie froze. She felt her toes curl. "Mr. LeBeau."

"Don' give me no authority, girl. Call me Remy." She turned around to find Remy eying her. "Nice body," he complimented her.

She said the first thing that came to her mind. "Nice ass."

"Havin' a nice ass will come in handy some of de time, but not all." He took her arm. "You're the one who played baseball, right?"

Annie nodded.

Remy smiled as he began to walk away. Annie watched him begin to move away, confused, until it became all to familiar. 

He's going to pivot slightly when he gets to the seventh step and throw it at me, her mind told her.

Annie caught it easily, despite the sharp velocity it was thrown, as well as to the naked eye, Remy was just waving at her. On instinct, Annie threw it right back at him, which landed sharply on his chest.

"What was that for?" He rubbed his chest.

Annie tried not to become too mesmerized by this. "If Gambit throws shit at you, you do not keep it lingering in your hands."

Remy smiled. "It wasn't charged."

"It could have been." As Remy began to smirk, Annie rolled her eyes. "By the way, copying training maneuvers by the way of Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie is not cool."

"Look, Annie, I saw you in the Danger Room---"

"Damn it, how many of you were watching me?!"

"Most of us. There's a closed circuit channel that shows this sort of thing."

"Swell."

"Annie, the point is that as much as I respect Henry, he went about this part of your training wrong. No matter how many times you saw those tapes, you wouldn't have been prepared for today any better." He came back to her. "Fightin'...it's not somethin' you can learn from a book, n'est pas?"

"I feel like the training sequence in Dirty Dancing."

Remy growled. "Do you want me to help you out or not?!"

Annie pointed at him. "The question is: are you going to wear tight pants and a wife beater?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Remy was doing something he wasn't all that good at doing; being oblivious.

"Like you said, Remy, having a nice ass comes in handy some of the time. Think of it as a motivation technique."

Remy's eyes casually drifted to the side of his had, as if to try to see his ass. He liked thinking of his ass as a motivational tool. He just wondered if--

"You have the best ass of the mansion," she answered his mental question. "I'll stand by that statement. I'll even say it casually among the men ."

"What good will that do?"

"Once, in front of Warren, I said that Hank had the warmest smile that I had ever seen. For the next week, he kept giving me these really strange smiles and saying, "What about this? Huh? What about this!" I like messing with Warren's head. It's eerily easy."

"Do you have a particular color of wife beater's in mind?"

-6-

Hank and Bobby spent fifteen minutes just staring at each other. In the past week, they had slowly made progress, much like the Fox and the Little Prince who tamed him, but they had yet to say any word other than various forms of greeting.

"Hey," Bobby said for the third time.

"Hello," Hank followed respectively.

A few more minutes of discomfort followed. Bobby stared longingly at the door, not having anything else to say, until he found a polysyllabic that he used as a key. "Benzodiazepine."

Hank tossed off with a forgotten levity, "Yes, it's a real word. Who are you playing Scrabble against?" 

Bobby took the bite. He didn't want to leave with nothing being accomplished once more. "Annie's taking it for her insomnia...is it safe?"

Hank scratched his ear before answering. "She isn't taking them every night, is she?"

Bobby shook his head no.

"That's good." Hank grabbed a sheet of paper from his desk and began scribbling on it. "It's a serious sedative, but I trust Annie with it, after looking at her history with medication."

Bobby's face went blank. "Huh?"

"After she tore her knee up, she was prescribed pain killers. Up until last month, she still had a valid prescription, but she was very responsible with the prescription. The first six months she was here, she's only been through one bottle." Hank folded the piece of paper over once and gave it to Bobby. "Annie's very cautious about addictions, given her family history."

"What do you mean by that?" Bobby asked, not yet opening the paper.

"Well, her grandmother's a recovering gambler, her aunt is an alcoholic, her cousins are stoners, and her mother was into speed. She's convinced that she's going to succumb to an addiction."

Bobby nodded his head in a defeat. "I should have known."

Hank put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm her doctor, I'm supposed to know."

Bobby smiled at him. "Yeah."

"And if you have any questions about her pills, I wrote down any side affects that could occur so you can keep a look out for them as well."

He opened up the paper and began reading. "Is this for post-menopausal women or for anyone?"

"Usually, it would be a hormone prescribed, but Emily injected her with this strange hormone cocktail that releases itself without the need of oral supplements. It will last her the next six months. It's really quite remarkable by design." Hank's comments were quick and uneasy, torn between the awe of her work and the awe of her work. "But it doesn't touch the insomnia, so she gave Annie these pills, explaining that she would experience uneasy rest because of the surgical procedure itself, as if that were the root."

Bobby nodded. "Have you seen her?"

"This morning at the Danger Room session--"

"No, Clay-Poole."

Hank shook his head "no" in embarrassment. "No one else in our circle of friends has, either. I am looking though, Bobby." Bobby nodded his head and turned to leave when Hank called out to him. "How is she?"

Bobby answered without turning. "I think she's pretty evil, actually--"

"Annie. How's Annie?"

A taste of why he and Hank weren't being Bobby and Hank came back to his mouth. He couldn't pass up the chance. "Happy."

-7-

Jean, Rogue, Ororo, and Kitty sat around the table as Annie dealt out the money. Annie was in sheer determination mode to get these women to like her or get expelled trying. Monopoly seemed to be the way that was agreed upon by all and Annie did not want to spend another night pretending that she liked some of the movies Bobby loved. There was only so many times a sane woman could sit through "Zapped!", starring TV's Scott Baio.

"I want the race car."

"We've been over this, Ororo, I'm the race car, you're the top hat."

"I do not wear hats, though, Jean. So I should be the race car."

"Patience, little Toto, patience. It may not be Kansas, but if enough people land on Park Place, we can buy Kansas!"

Kitty leaned over to Annie. "Know this now...Rogue is a fierce Monopoly player. Once, when it looked like she was going to lose to Warren, she said that Ororo was walking around topless behind him and left the room. She has a perfect record."

"Yes, little Toto, everything is going to plan..."

"And is really creepy when paper money is involved."

"The top hat does not even fit on my head, why should it be my designated piece?"

"You can't drive the race car, either, Ororo! And the race car is mine because I'm always the race car!"

"Maybe when you and Scott play, but you have no such sway over me, Jean. I do not take to redheads."

Annie smiled as she motioned to the out of character argument. "If you two don't quit it, we're going to play it by Bobby's rules."

Jean groaned. "But I don't want to be an Oreo cookie!"

"Would I have to be an Oreo cookie, too?"

"A Nilla Wafer."

Ororo's face showed slight disgust over having to be anything vanilla. "Then I shall accept the top hat. Annie, what would you like to be?"

"The Paul Revere looking thing." Annie cleaned up the bank and soon, everyone was counting their money. "So, do we play where Free Parking is also a lottery, or...?"

Rogue took time out of her paper money stupor to answer. "How else am I going to be the most powerful woman in Atlantic City?"

Annie grinned even more. She looked up to see a figure looming in the hallway. Using her powers of deduction and likelihood of who would be looming over a game of Monopoly, she smiled at Remy. During their private training session, he had tipped her off about Rogue's love of Monopoly and that she would force every person she could find to play, if asked. He told her after Annie confided in him about how she felt left out in the mansion, especially among the women.

Remy nodded and began to leave, but not after a slight hand gesture near his backside, signaling her. "Hey," Annie began. "Is it just me or does Remy have just the most perfect ass?"

The women remained silent until Rogue spoke up. "Honey, that ass is so great that everything else is just the icing on the cake!"

Excellent, Annie thought. Everything is going to plan.

-8-

"Are you still reading that book?" Annie motioned to the leather book in Bobby's hands. 

"It's fascinating."

"What is it?"

"The most terrifying and scary book since "The Shining" or "The Baby-Sitters Club"." Bobby sat the book down at the nightstand. "Where were you all day? I tried to find you to get some lunch."

Annie smiled as she changed into her night clothes. "I spent some time with Remy, actually." She saw the sad look on his face from the reflection in the mirror. "Not like that. He was just showing me some skills. After the catastrophe in the Danger Room this morning, I needed them badly." She turned to him, wearing barely anything. "I made him wear tight pants and a wife beaters and then I lived a fantasy of mine since I was first exposed to Patrick Swayze."

"I see."

"Then I played Monopoly with the girls."

"Girls?" Bobby began to chuckle. "Dear Penthouse...I thought my world was over when my girlfriend spent the afternoon ogling another man's behind when I learned that she spent the rest of her night playing strip Monopoly with a group of young, nubile girls and my wildest fantasy was realized..."

Annie jumped on the bed to kiss him. "Bobby, please. Your wildest fantasy includes a Nintendo, hot wings, Electra Women and/or Dyna-Girl."

"Note to self, do not tell girlfriend fantasies ever again." Bobby turned her over to pin her. "You know, it's dangerous, mentioning the stuff my dreams are made of."

"Like a life size Lego house?"

"Mmm."

"A reunion of Duran Duran with John Taylor?"

"That's it. Talk dirty to me."

"Nah. If I wanted to talk dirty to you, I'd say something like, "Wonder Twin powers, activate!"

Bobby went back to his side of the bed. "You know, I'm more than just a pop culture fiend. I have other things that turn me on that have never had a cereal franchise linked to them!"

Annie rolled over and placed a hand on his chest and the other to switch off the lamp. "I know. I just want you to turn off the light so I can do them."

Bobby stopped her. "Are you okay to do this, Annie?"

Annie didn't need to make a sound to let her approval known.

-9-

Bobby kissed the point on her neck where it connected to her shoulder and relished in the softness of it. He loved the feeling of someone so tiny and delicate compared to his size beneath him. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something about this that was so wrong about it. Knowing that his size was hurting her, knowing how self-conscious she was, knowing that he was in the process of fucking Jubilee's brains out was--

Bobby woke up. He wasn't aware that he had even fallen asleep. He quickly looked to his side to make sure Annie was still asleep; she was. 

He got up from the bed and went to the bathroom. He felt sickened by the images and how they seemed to linger. Even worse was the knowledge that he knew these images were created by thoughts he had been harboring after Jubilee telling him that they had kissed when he was drunk.

Bobby went back to the bed where Annie was sleeping soundly. She hadn't taken her pills tonight, and they laid on his nightstand faithfully, there if they were ever needed.

He couldn't get the images out of his mind. He popped three in his mouth, in addition to the three he took last night. He didn't even stop for water.


	4. Six Seeds, pt 4

Six Seeds, pt. 4

By Mice

-1-

Hermes sped as fast as he could to the Underworld where Hades reluctantly told him that Persephone was in the gardens. When he arrived, all he saw Persephone with a smirking child. He called out to her, telling her that she could finally go home, barring that she had not ate or drank there.. Wordlessly, Persephone grinned as she ran towards him. The child grinned as he ran to tell Hades.

-2-

When she had attended her mother's funeral, Annie's grandmother dressed her in a pastel flowered dress that went right below her knees. She used it as her Easter dress just a month later. It was one of those special dresses that when twirled in, it's full circle skirt would make itself known. Annie had been six years-old and twirled herself into giddiness; she hadn't been close to her mother. She never really knew her - Salem Brodie was placed under psychiatric care for manic depression and substance abuse after Annie had turned one. She didn't know what else to do but twirl.

Annie gave a bit of a twirl now in her non-twirly deep green dress. It was demure and heightened her flat chest. She had been to other wakes and other funerals since her mother's, but had never found it necessary to wear black. The green in her dress was deep enough for others to guess, and that was done out of respect.

"Do I look all right?"

Bobby nodded as he slipped on a dark blue blazer, though it looked to be the same color as her dress. "You look great."

"You look like a Sears catalogue," Annie joked as she put on a pair of knock-off pear earrings.

"Well, that's where my mother bought my suit, so..."

She softened immediately. "I didn't mean--"

"I always wanted to go to an actual tailor or something, anything to give me a nice suit that would make me look not nineteen, but Mom liked Sears. And Mom was the one who bought, so..."

Annie went to wrap him in a hug. "You are still a lucky man, Bobby Drake. You have a good family. And you have a father who loves you very much."

Bobby snickered. "Well, he ain't no Yankee, that's for sure."

"That's not funny, Bobby." Annie bit her lip. "Just because he was a Yankee doesn't mean much else."

"He has a baseball card!" Bobby went to a drawer. "In fact, I have something to show you..." He withdrew a card on a mount. "Frankie Peckenpaugh, New York Yankee, Catcher." He presented the card to her. "You two look a lot alike."

Annie tossed the card on the bed quickly, not wanting to see the picture. "Yippee."

Bobby went to brush his hair once more before leaving. "Does your father still live in New York, Annie?"

"How should I know?"

Bobby kicked himself for being tactless and not being able to grasp onto clues. "Oh..."

"It's my fault, Bobby. I never told you that I wasn't close with my father...back home, it's different. Everyone knew what happened -- benefit of a small town." Annie shrugged as she picked up the card. "I've never seen this before."

"You didn't know he had a card?"

"I've never seen him before." Annie bit her lip as her eyes began to water. "My grandmother said that when my mother told him that she was pregnant, he wanted nothing to do with her. In fact, last anyone saw him, he was at the Prairie Inn and my aunt Peyton told him that my mother had a girl named Ann. And that's when he walked out." Annie turned to look at Bobby. "He didn't even leave a tip."

It was Bobby's turn to draw her into a hug. "We're not doing a good job of keeping each other from crying, are we?"

"The only thing stopping me from letting go is the fact that I don't want to ruin my eyeliner." She released Bobby and smiled. "You're going to get through this, Bobby. And I'm going to help you all I can."

He kissed her on her forehead. "Start with my tie and then tell me more about this eyeliner."

-3-

"Figures."

"What figures?"

"You'd settle for cheap grocery store cheese."

"It's good cheese."

"You have one of those fancy gourmet shops right down the street, I bet you they have great cheeses."

"I like the cheese."

"I could have brought cheese with me from home. I have something that's been in my refrigerator for three months that would have been more appealing to my palate."

"Maddy liked this cheese."

"And look what happened to Maddy. Knowing her, she only pretended to appease you. I mean, for crying out loud, Will, would a Kraft cheese be too much to ask?

William Drake was counting the minutes until his mother-in-law left. There were still so many and it gave him a headache.

"Please say that the wine isn't from a box."

"Jacob is bringing the wine."

Nan Bass grinned. If it was one thing her children knew how to do, it was alcohol selection. Jacob could make an out of this world martini by the time he was twelve. She rewarded him in olives, which he was inordinately fond of. Never asked for the martini, though, the pour boy, Nan thought.

She also thought how nice it would be if Jacob brought nice, expensive cheese. Or anyone for that matter.

"Nan?" Bobby Drake called out. Annie stalled by the door, not wanting to enter. "Come, on Annie, you'll love her!"

"I'm not worried about your grandmother, Bobby."

He looked at her.

"Okay, I am, but this is just bringing back some bad memories. Remember the last time I was here?"

Bobby nodded, remembering having to cart Annie off to the hospital to find out what was wrong with her. It was so soon after his mother that Bobby felt that he couldn't breathe. "Nothing bad is going to happen."

"Robert!" Nan called as she entered the Drake foyer.

Bobby gave her a bag from a local winery. "I don't want to hear any cheese arguments. And I promise you that not one of these cheeses cost less than three dollars an ounce."

Nan planted a large kiss on her grandson's cheek. "Make your Nan happy and change your last name to Bass."

"Heh heh, no." Bobby motioned for Annie to move further in. "Nan, this is my girlfriend."

Annie waved demurely from the door frame. She suddenly felt like she was on an episode of Wild Kingdom and that she was a gazelle about to be devoured by the lioness. Bobby was right, she should have worried about meeting his grandmother more.

"Come here, girl. Don't let that nasty Long Island air in here, though who am I, the Angelino, to talk."

Annie inched her way in, quickly tonguing her teeth to make sure they were clean enough to smile with.

"What's your name, girl?"

"Annie."

Nan immediately frowned. "Angina is not an appropriate name for a girl like you."

Annie's eyes flew wide. "Did Bobby tell you that? Because then I must kill him, and I'll be very sad to do so."

"Call it intuition, girl." Nan brought her fingers to her lips to think. "You are going to be a tricky one. I'll get back to you." Nan patted Bobby's shoulder and took the cheeses. "Lovely girl, though."

Annie stared at Bobby until he talked. "Would you believe that I come from a family of empaths?"

Annie thought about it. She believed it. She stared at Bobby more.

"And that one of my Nan's chief joys in life is to rename people she likes?"

"So she likes me?"

"Maybe. Once she renamed one of Cliff's boyfriends "Adolph", so we'll see."

The door opened once more and Jacob Bass stood in the room. "Hey, Bobby. Could you see that Nan gets these cheeses before her and William get into it?"

-4-

The Drake home was not a large home. It was a modest middle class home nestled in the middle class neighborhood in Long Island. It was something of pride to William who paid for it himself. It was his domain, his castle, his refuge. However, at this moment, it was more confining than wherever Maddy was now. Assembled in this room was his mother-in-law, his brother-in-law with his estranged wife that was once his lover that may or may have not had another child by him. Also here was his nephew who he had already called a variety of unflattering names and even when he stopped and just said them in his head, he still saw the long haired hippie glare at him, like he was doing right now. He was dating some yellow haired Chink--and he was now practically growling at him.

William turned his attention someplace else. Julia Lubbock was here, looking just as exquisite as he remembered when he was trying to court her sister Jacqueline. She, of course, was here with her "life partner", Claudia. 

Also assembled was his niece, Holland, her son, "insert minority name here", and some young man he had never seen before. Holland had also dyed her hair some sort of purplish-red for some unknown reason. She was also smiling. This made William a bit sad, as he could always count on his niece to throw some sort of tantrum and divert the attention from him.

His son and his girlfriend were there as well. William did not have a high opinion of this one. She appeared to be normal, but then Bobby told him about where she grew up and it made him angry. Just what his son needed, to throw his life away on a piece of white trash.

The worst part for William was that everyone looked at him as if they knew. He didn't know what they did know -- the list of crimes against him was immense -- but they just seemed to know the worst while drinking their wine and their cheese.

Oh, yes. Their cheese. Every last one of them brought expensive cheese. His son's whore was lapping up the cheese happily, who he supposed never had anything more expensive than a McDonald's Value Meal in her life.

William went to the door to get away from the crowd when he saw a large man on his porch. "Well?" he asked.

"Greetings, Mr. Drake. It's nice to see you again, though not under these circumstances."

"Who are you?"

"Hank. I'm Bobby's friend."

"Oh. The doctor one."

Hank nodded. "Yes. I'm sure if I were on _Three's Company_, that's exactly who I'd be referred to as."

William nodded slowly, hesitant to join his world. "Bobby's in there with that girl."

Hank blinked. "How do you mean?"

"Have you seen her?" William hooted. "She's some sort of piece of white trash that he picked up in Wyoming. Lives in New York now. Can't imagine doing what, since Guiliani cleaned up this town, if you know what I mean."

Hank steadied himself. He was a gentleman. "No."

"Well, you will when you see the tight dress she has on. This is my wife's wake and she's practically giving a free show when she sits down--"

Hank corrected himself. He wasn't a gentleman. And he corrected it by connecting his fist into William Drake's head.

-5-

Hank and Bobby had carried and placed William on the sofa. Hank had tended to his wounds, apologizing for his display of savagery.

"I don't care, I just want you people to stop hitting me!" William shouted, notably to his brother-in-law Jacob.

"Ya hit Willie?" Hollis Lubbock, Jacob's estranged wife asked in awe.

Nan hid her smile.

"Ah bet you didn't think he could do that, Holl," Julia Lubbock tossed to her sister.

"I'm sorry," Hank offered once more. "But he really was out of line."

"My wife just died!" William shouted. "I've been punched out twice in three weeks, my good shoes are ruined, I don't know how to do my laundry, I'm sick of having to order take out, my son is making another huge mistake, and I like my cheese!"

The room was silent for a moment out of respect until Bobby piped up. "Wait a minute, I'm what now?"

Hank growled. "I remember why I punched you now..." Hank advanced over to William once again, but was stopped by Annie.

"And I see why you punched me. Getting some on the side?"

Hank and Annie went red as Bobby stormed out of the room with Jubilee on his heels.

Nan turned to Harpo. "Now you see why we don't invite him to the reunions."

-6-

Jubilee found Bobby fuming while power walking around the block. "You know, it's a good thing that you're so short. If you were six foot, I'd never be able to catch up with you...well, not by simply running. Actually, it wasn't running, it was more of a sprightly jog...invigorating, really."

Bobby hmmphed.

"So your dad's being a jerk. Same old story, right?"

"Yeah."

Jubilee nodded. "Oh, new story, different guy. Someone bigger and bluer?"

"Maybe."

"And a freckled girl?"

He growled. It wasn't something he did regularly, but it seemed appropriate.

"Nothing happened though..."

Bobby stopped walking. "Not for lack of trying." Bobby punched the air. "I know her, Jubilee, and I know Hank a damn site better, and I know that it wasn't for a lack of trying. Do you think that I don't know why she's with me?" Bobby pointed to himself. "She feels sorry for me. And she needs me. And she knows that I would do anything for her...but I know that's never going to be enough for her. She's going to get bored again and dump me. And who for? My best friend." Bobby looked directly into her eyes. "That's who I am. That's my only function for women, to be used."

"Despite your fantasies, Drake, you are not a boy toy." Jubilee rolled her eyes. "Bobby, I'm going to tell you something that if you ever tell anyone else that I said it, I will deny it." Jubilee took in a deep breath. "You care so much about other people, Bobby. So much that sometimes you can't even catch it. And you're very sensitive and your feelings are easily hurt and you go around, goofing off, so people can't tell that you are hurt. I've seen you hurt, Bobby. And I know you don't deserve it."

Bobby blinked a few times before responding. "That was insightful. But, and I don't mean to make you uncomfortable or anything, in all my relationships, I've always felt that I've had to compensate emotionally."

"What do you mean?"

Bobby blushed. "You know..." He shook his head. "Why am I telling a sixteen year-old this?"

"I'm seventeen, now, and I know...you know?"

"You and Harpo...?"

Jubilee nodded. "You're not going to kill him?"

"Can't. He's family."

"Well, that's good." Jubilee thought out her words carefully before speaking. "Bobby, if you give emotionally what you give physically, I don't think any one of your girlfriends could ever be unsatisfied."

"His code name is "Beast", for God's sake! That doesn't stack up to an Iceman." Bobby pulled out an Altoid tin from his pocket and put a mint in his mouth.

"Bobby, I'm sure you know what you're doing in bed."

"Right, because I'm asking a seventeen year-old for sex tips." Bobby sat himself down in strange grass. "I don't mean to drag you there. I'm just worried that it's all out of my control."

Jubilee joined him on the grass. "Bobby, take it from me, if something happens that's too good to be true, take it and enjoy it for what it is and don't worry about what it will be tomorrow. It ruins the intimacy of the moment." Jubilee made a face. "Do you see what you have me doing, Drake? It's like my mind is set to Hallmark instead of snark!"

-7-

Annie and Hank sat in Bobby's Ford Festiva. It looked like a clown car in comparison to Hank's size, but the seriousness of the moment kept them from giggling.

"He doesn't trust me, Annie."

"Well, he doesn't trust me, either, apparently."

Hank pouted. "I was rather hoping that he had reason to."

Annie swallowed. "Don't do that."

Hank let out a breath he had been holding onto for a week. "Why him, Annie? Why on earth did you decide on him?"

"When Bobby and I first...consummated our relationship, he told me something and it made me feel exquisitely beautiful." She turned and looked at Hank. "He told me that I was his "Ivy Greeneth". He said that it was an anagram, and then when you and I were talking at the bar, I figured it out."

"Everything. You're his everything."

Annie nodded. "And after what I've gone through, I never thought I'd be anyone's anything. And I know that if anyone on this earth can be true to me, it's Bobby." She took his hand. "That's not to say that your untrustworthy--"

"Except that I am. I came on to you." Hank let out a laugh. "I even let you drink when you've been on an empty stomach for three days the night before your surgery!"

"Hank--"

"My motives were far from pure, Annie." He looked at himself at the side view mirror. "You probably made the better choice. Bobby would never cheat on you or hurt you in any way. I'd probably come to neglect you for my work. You need someone who'll be there."

"You're being hard on yourself. I knew what I was doing, too."

Silence clung in the Ford Festiva like the odor of the discarded fast food containers in the back seat.

"Talking about this isn't making it easier for me," Hank added after the silence became too heavy. "And I don't think it's a good idea for me to be alone with you."

Annie felt herself flush with that. "It probably isn't." She hated herself for it. Bobby was a great boyfriend, but just an adequate lover. Bobby never made her feel like that even after extensive touching. "I'm going to leave before I do something we both regret." Annie opened the car door and let herself out. "Are you getting out, Hank?"

"You go in first. I want to think."

Annie nodded and left for the house again, leaving Hank alone.

"This is not good, Hank," he told himself. His hands fumbled around in the small car to look for some sort mints to distract him from thinking about what he really wanted to think about. He succeeded with one of Bobby's numerous Altoid tins. Hank deposited it in his pocket, remembering that Bobby had purloined each and every one of his Altoid tins, even the one's he marked in black permanent marker, "HANK'S". In fact, this was one of them.

-8-

Annie went straight to Bobby in the living room and kissed him. "Hey."

Bobby took her hand and nodded quietly.

"I'm going to get some wine, do you want some more?"

Bobby swallowed his glass and nodded again.

Annie made her way to the cheese and wine table when she felt eyes on the back of her.

"Diana."

She turned around and found Nan Bass behind her. "What was that?"

"Goddess of the Hunt and Chase. It suits you fine."

Annie let her eyes sink to the floor. "Oh."

Nan put a hand on her shoulder. "You're in a tough situation, Diana."

"Your "intuition"?"

"I'll warn you right now, everyone in my family has it." Nan motioned with her drink. "Even Bobby, or at least he did." She took Annie by the hand and led her to the kitchen. "You are not a bad girl. I get where you're coming from."

"Are you going to yell at me? I didn't do anything, I swear!"

Nan laughed. "For having thoughts? Please." She sliced herself a piece of exquisite cheese. "Diana, you're a very young woman. You're not turning twenty-four for another two weeks. And already you are pressuring yourself with these thoughts...you're a young woman. Capable of doing many things that have nothing to do with men." Nan pointed at Annie's head. "There is so much potential swimming up there. I bet that you could help so many people if you'd stop worrying about who you are going to share your bed with. Cheese?"

Annie declined.

"I never knew my father, either." Nan shook her head. "I think that maybe he was around when I was a tot, but I don't remember much. I know he left us. And I know that when a parent leaves a child, for whatever reason, it hurts that child more than what's on the surface." Nan pointed to her granddaughter. "That's my Jacqueline. My recent success story. Her mother left when she was still young for reasons that weren't very good. She was the angriest girl that you could imagine. She made mistakes and thought that no one could ever love her because her mother didn't. Bitterness and bad naming did that. I'm going to see to it that her son, who also doesn't know who his father is, never feels that.

"And Bobby...he had a father that his mother married because she had to prove something to herself. That was never love, that was a competition. My Maddy hated to lose. And while Will was here physically, you think he was here in any other way?

"You see, Diana, you're not alone."

Annie let out a breath. "I'm not the only one with a bad name."

Nan looked around and made a sign for Annie to be quiet. She then pointed to her self and said, "Dorothy."

"What? Oh. Oh!"

"As soon as I left home, I ditched that sucker. There was a girl in kindergarten named Hannah and I thought it was the most exquisite name. I'm not saying things got magically better after I gave myself a new name, but I am." Nan sat down her glass of wine and motioned for Annie to come closer. "If I'm harsh, it's because that's the woman I've grown into. I've had to fight to become who I am. Most people, Diana, have to search long and hard to figure out what it is that they are supposed to do. Some never find out. I know what I have to do."

"You had a radio show?"

Nan smiled. "Among other things, but that was just something I did for money, not for humanity. What I do for humanity is force it to look itself in the eye and admit that they are unhappy. Admit that they are doing things to get by day to day. And that's no way to live."

Annie nodded. "I am unhappy. And I don't know what to do."

Nan took Annie into her arms and embraced her. "You will soon, Diana."

-9-

Bobby tried in vain to go for the olives his uncle was hording. "Please, Jacob? Just one of the green ones?"

"But those are the best ones."

"Then a black one."

"Those are also the best ones. You can have a green tomato..."

"Those are the worst ones."

"Which is why you can have it." Jacob let out a small laugh as he let Bobby to the olives. "That's something you and I share. Your mother hated olives."

"I remember when you lived down the street that I'd go over and ask you to give me some olives. We'd eat them on your back porch."

Jacob smiled. "I'm glad you remember that." Jacob took another olive off the plate and popped it into his mouth. "I'm glad you remember something positive from all that."

Bobby shrugged. "It wasn't all bad."

"It was for me." Jacob looked at his estranged wife who was talking to her daughter across the room. "Bobby, I want to tell you something and I don't want you to be cross with me."

"What is it?"

"Don't settle when it comes to women."

Bobby blinked. "What?"

"I settled. Look what happened."

"I thought that you and Hollis...well, that you were infatuated with her."

Jacob shook his head. "Crazy thing about her family -- the girls all look a lot alike. There's a set of twins in there, but they look like Hollis. I was in love with one of those twins, and when she died, I should have stopped. Instead, I let myself be used."

Bobby flinched at the term. 

"Promise me, Bobby...promise that you're not going to make the mistake that your mother and I did. She went after someone who wasn't what she thought, and I went after someone who looked the part." Jacob wiped his hand on a napkin. "There doesn't need to be another one of us who unhappy for the majority of his life."

-10-

Hollis Lubbock-Bass took a white gloved hand to her throat. "You've done what now?"

"Well, you your credit card with me. And I figured that since you never bought me my first tampons, my prom dress, or a baby shower gift, that you owed me." 

"Didn't anyone ask for ID?"

"We basically have the same name, and my drivers license says "HOLL SUZANNE BASS". Nobody ever questioned it." Holland Bass smiled. Most daughters would get smacked for saying what she did, but most daughters didn't have a mother who left them for material reasons. "You should be happy, Mom, I used it enough to make sure I never have a unibrow." She motioned to her lovely brow line. "And the clothes? Nice. When I go perform, I--"

"You perform?" Hollis pursed her lips as if having tasted lemon extract. "What?"

"I sing. Nan's been helping me a lot -- she still has a lot of connections."

"So you're neglecting your son?"

That was met with an icy gaze.

"All right, that Ah deserve."

"If you must know, Bert spends time with Jack."

Hollis blinked. "Who?"

"Jack." Holland beamed. "My boyfriend."

"Where did ya find this one?"

"Oh, I didn't. It's a funny story, really! Nan took him in after he lost his apartment--"

"He was homeless?"

Holland smiled. She could have told the truth, but this was so much better. "Yes."

"Excuse me, but Ah think Ah have the vapors..."

-12-

Bobby sat next to his father. "How are you feeling, Dad?"

"Miserable, you?" 

Bobby cocked his head. "Feelin' fine."

"Hmmph."

"You didn't have to insult Annie, you know."

"It's not her personally, Bobby..." William trailed off. "I hate this part."

"What part?"

"I didn't want your mother to die first. I should have gotten to, and your mother should have gotten a second chance at finding a better man." William's frown formed into a grimace. "That was my biggest hope for your mother. I didn't deserve her."

Bobby put a hand on his father's shoulder. "But she wanted you."

William looked in his son's eyes. "You found out?"

Bobby nodded slowly. "Jacob gave me her diary. I know a lot."

"So you know it's my fault."

Bobby shook his head. "She didn't know any better. Just like Jacob." Bobby looked over to Annie. "Just like me." Bobby looked at his father and his guilty countenance. "And she knew, too."

William burrowed his eyebrows. "About?"

"She knew why Hollis left."

"She knew about the affair."

"She knew that Hollis was pregnant and that it was yours."

William took a deep breath. "I didn't know that. I didn't even know until a while ago."

"So..." Bobby began it tenderly. He had only gotten to that section of his mother's journal the other night and hadn't even spoken to Annie about it. "Do I have a brother? Sister? What's their name?"

William shook his head. "You don't."

"It's an It? Like a hermaphrodite?"

"She had an abortion."

Bobby swallowed his, "Oh," and all the disappointment that went with it. When he had read that section in his mother's journal, all that excitement he has a kid in wanting a brother or sister came back. And just as sudden as it came, it went.

"You're disappointed?"

"Yeah."

"Me too."

-13-

"Annie, we have to leave."

Annie stared at Hank as if he said, "Annie, there is an extemporaneous arm growing out of your forehead."

Hank leaned in close and whispered in her ear, "We've found her."

"Emily?"

Hank made a motion to the door. "Boston."

"Let me tell Bobby first." Hank nodded as she left to the other room. "Bobby?"

Bobby turned his attention from his father to his girlfriend. "What's wrong?"

Annie looked at Bobby's father and then back at him. "Remember that doctor I've been meaning to see? Well, she finally has an appointment open and I need to go to her office."

Bobby didn't quite smile as he took her and pulled her into a hug. "Are you ready for this?"

"I can't put it behind me until I do." She gave Bobby a quick kiss and ran her fingers along his neck. "Wish me luck?"

Bobby smiled. "And more."


	5. Six Seeds, pt 5

**Standard Mice Disclaimer**

Mice is in no way associated with the Marvel Comics Group. She is merely trying to write a story and this is all she has to show for it. A noble effort. Though she would one day like to be paid for writing, please don't send her any money (send mail to urmonkeyifudo@yeahright.com on instructions to send her money). The characters of Bobby Drake, Hank McCoy, William and Maddy Drake, and Jubilee, belong to the Marvel Comics Group. Holland, Jacob, Bert, Cliff, Hollis, Annie, Claudia, Harpo, Jacqueline, Julia, Jack, and Nan are of my own mind. Any archiving of this story that is unaware of her attention will be ily received (Read: Tikki Curse). If you e-mail her, explain your intentions to archive the story and address of your archive, she will be more than gracious and will probably do something nice for you, like bake you brownies, not to mention archiving the story. She just wants to know where she can drool over the sight of her name. If you want to e-mail her comments, do it at reese@snarkyblue.com. You'll also get some brownies out of the deal, but it's not really that great of a reward because she can't cook. 

Previous installments of this story can be found at Alyson Hurt's excellent site, (un)frozen: 

Six Seeds, pt. 5

By Mice

-Prologue-

Zeus became the great compromiser in the situation, but only after Hermes whispered his idea into his father's ear. That idea sounded an awful lot like the following: Hades wasn't happy with having his bride for only six months, but it was better than what Demeter was willing to spare of her daughter.

Demeter, naturally, wasn't happy with the arrangement either, but knew that she was lucky to have her daughter for those six months. She and Persephone were going to have a talk about those six seeds she ate, causing this horrible decision. In truth, Demeter was almost embarrassed over having such a stupid daughter.

Hermes didn't mind. As long as it shut everyone up, he was happy to have credit stolen from him.

-1-

Logan waited to take a puff out of his cigar out. He had been waiting since Jubilee had brought him outside and had started her rambling. She was nervous and was trembling, and even with his hearing, he could only make out a few words like "Frosty" and "drunk". Even without the other words, Logan had two hunches at what the general message was about and doubted that it was the one about a drinking a good beer. It was the United States, after all.

"Jubes?"

"Yeah?"

"You had sex with Drake?"

Jubilee paled. "It depends on whether or not you're going to kill him..."

Logan smiled and took that long awaited drag. "What would you do if I did?" he asked in an eerily steady voice.

"Well, I wouldn't be happy, that's for sure!" Jubilee took a deep breath. "And I don't think Annie'd be too happy..."

Logan nodded his head once. He never really talked to the kid, but had nothing against her. "Fair enough. What does the boy think?"

"The boy" was Harpo. "He says he understands."

"Did he offer to kill Drake?"

"No."

Logan growled disapprovingly. "Yer life, kid."

Jubilee blinked. "What?"

"Yer getting older, you can make yer own decisions."

"What happened to wanting to kill Bobby?"

"I never said that. You did. Just asked what you'd do." Logan stretched his arms and watched the smoke rise from his cigar and become part of the pattern of the sky. "I like him."

"Drake?"

"The boy."

"Oh."

"Do you like Bobby?"

"I like the boy."

-2-

Bobby opened the door for Holland and Bert. He decided to give them a break from Long Island for a night, and he still wanted to be near family.

Bert looked up and all around the mansion as he slowly walked inside, his little mouth making a perfect little "o". He paced himself slowly in the entry way before stopping. "Monet!"

Bobby turned. "Where?"

Bert pointed to a painting. "Monet!"

Bobby shook his head. "She's not here, Bert. That's a painting."

Bert stomped his foot. "Lillies. Monet!"

Bobby looked at the painting -- it was the Professor's "Water Lillies at Giverney". He looked back at Bert. "What are you letting this kid watch?"

Holland smiled. "Anything he wants. He just picks up on the weirdest things. He's happiest when I put on game shows...he likes seeing people win cars."

"New car!"

Bobby shook his head and motioned for them to come in more.

"Are you sure it's okay for us to be here?"

"Yeah!" Bobby answered, knowing that the answer may be no. "Besides, I've got lots of toys for Bert to play with."

"That's good. At your father's house, I looked for some of your old toys and I couldn't find any."

"Are you deaf? I just said I have toys for Bert to play with. Where do you think the majority of them come from?"

"Bobby, I swear that you couldn't find puberty if you were an elephant and it was a peanut."

"I beg to differ--"

Bobby was cut off by an ear piercing squeal of, "BLUE!!"

Holland and Bobby looked around them to see that they were missing Bert. "Great, this is what I get for insulting you!"

Bobby grinned. "Usually, people get nothing. Feel special."

"Bert?" Holland called out to a general area.

"Is that what the boy's name is?" Hank McCoy came into the foyer, still in his suit, indisposed of his image inducer that he had used earlier in the evening, revealing his blue fur. On his left leg, he was wearing Bert.

Holland nodded. It was all she could do. She'd seen Dr. Henry McCoy on television, but never associated him with Bobby's friend Hank. Bobby's furless friend Hank.

Hank reached over to his leg to remove Bert, but found that he couldn't coax him from his position.

"Is he bothering you?" Holland asked.

Hank shook his head. "I just don't want him to get tired..."

"He won't. You should see him around dogs. He's relentless." Holland grinned in confused pride. "He's just fond of things that are blue and have fur. You seem to be the perfect blend.

Bert nuzzled his face on Hank's leg and let out the satisfying sigh of, "Blue..."

"Is Annie still here?" Bobby asked after looking in a nearby room.

"She's in Boston with Remy and Scott."

Bobby blinked. "How come you're not there with her?"

"The Professor thought that I may be a potential target for Emily and didn't want me to be involved. After all, look what she did to Annie, who knows what she would do to me?"

"So Annie's out there with Gambit?" Bobby grunted. "This is stupid! I should be there with them!"

"To do what, Bobby? To tell Annie that she's fine and doesn't need to push herself?" Hank's voice was a little louder than he intended it to be. As a result, Bert departed from his perch and ran to his mother.

Bobby drew in a small breath to calm himself. "How long have you been sitting on that one?"

Hank opened his mouth to speak, but closed it and began to walking away.

"Don't you do that, Hank!" Bobby called after him. "It's not fair that you talk all the time, knowingly over my head for most of it, and then just stop. Is talking only fun when you get to seem smarter than everyone else?"

"You don't want to hear it, Bobby. Not from me," Hank yelled, not turning around, but not progressing forward, either.

"Doesn't matter anyway." Bobby turned to walk to where Holland and Bert were avoiding his conversation. "She chose me. Not you."

This made Hank turn around. "She settled for you."

Bobby spun around and looked at his best friend. "Take that back."

"I told you didn't want to hear it, Bobby."

"I said, take it back!"

"No. I don't believe I will." Hank advanced towards him. "Do you know why she chose you? Because wanted safe, dependable, puppy eyed Bobby Drake who promised her an anagrammed password that he took from me!"

Bobby drew nearer to Hank. "You said I should use it for the appropriate girl."

"How many have you used the password on, Bobby? You used it on Opal--"

"I was careless."

"You used it on Cloud--"

"I was clueless."

"You used it on the bank teller!"

"I--" Bobby began, but ultimately faltered. "I came up with that anagram, too, if you remember!"

Hank growled in response. "I remember that weekend, Bobby. You turned twenty-one and we had just bought that cabin. We didn't have women and naturally, that's all we talked about that weekend. We talked about what we liked and what we wanted from them. I was talking about Rostand and Cyrano, and how the letters to Roxane were the most beautiful ever written and how I'd like to feel that one day. You said that you wanted something to make women tremble upon hearing it. I came up with the password -- everything. You liked it, and was going to use it just like that. I suggested scrambling the letters up, I suggested the anagram. If I had listened to you, you would have told Annie that she was your "The Very Gin". That doesn't even mean anything!" Hank approached Bobby until they were inches away from each other. "I didn't even tell Trish that password. I was saving it."

"Really? And when were you going to tell Annie? While she was waiting on our table? Making you watch soap operas? Oh, how about this, plying her with alcohol the very day we broke up because you are such a classy guy?"

"Don't push me, Bobby."

"Why not? You hit my father, why not me?"

"Your father made me angry. You have betrayed me."

Bobby laughed. "Oh, that's great. I betrayed you? You got Annie in this whole situation! You're the reason she's never going to have kids!"

"Well then thank God she's dating you! Who'd want your kids!"

And that's the first time a non-mind controlled Bobby Drake, removed from any Danger Room exercises, hit Hank McCoy.

-3-

Annie shifted in her seat in the Blackbird. She was happy to note that the ride wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be; she was the sort to get motion sickness on the merry-go-round. This was somewhat pleasant. What wasn't pleasant was the uniform Remy gave her.

"You said that you don' like de yellow and blue, so I got you somet'in real pretty."

Annie glared at her black uniform. It wasn't so bad -- the pants of it didn't cling tenaciously to her calves and thighs, but the top with the two bands of black cloth barely covering her chest was what iced it. "Is this some sort of revenge for something I may have said in reference to how silly I think your uniform is?"

"Maybe yes, maybe non."

Annie shivered. "I'm cold."

"You cuddle up to Bobby every night and you're complainin' ta me about de cold? Deaf ears, chere, deaf ears."

Annie could see Scott's smile reflected on the windshield of the Blackbird. "I agree with Gambit. You should be enjoying the warmth. In fact, Bobby's the reason that every Blackbird that has been made, with the exception of the first, has been equipped with a heater. Do you have any idea what it's like flying around with a hormonal teenager who generates cold?"

"I'm sure I'll appreciate it soon -- summer's almost here."

"That is when Bobby does his best work," Scott agreed. "And when we can better tell when he's up to something. In winter, we have prime pranking Bobby. In summer, he settles down quite a bit and becomes incredibly useful."

Annie returned Scott's smile. Though she and Jean were not even close to being friends, she found herself liking Scott as her friend more and more, despite all the stories and rumors she had heard. That probably comes from growing up with coaches, Annie thought. Yelling at you, trying your patience, pushing you until you hurt...but that's what leaders do. They do all that and respect you, too.

"We're getting ready to land. Gambit, I want you to take Annie inside and retrieve Dr. Clay-Poole. I don't want a fight, I just want to collect her and return her to the mansion for questioning. I'm going to watch you through this," Scott took out a silver communicator and handed it to Remy to put on Annie. "If you need any help, I'll come."

Annie smiled at Remy as he put it on her. "You know, at prom, I only got a corsage made of freesia. I feel like the prettiest girl here."

Remy shook his head. "Dere ain't none prettier than de one right in front of you."

-4-

"BLUE!"

Kurt Wagner jumped at the noise. "Vas?" He looked across the room, searching for where the noise came from. "Who is there?"

He felt a slight tug on his tail. He turned slowly to find a small child looking up at him with a wild smile. "Oh. Hello..."

The boy pointed. "Little Blue!"

"Little Blue?" Kurt repeated before figuring it out. "You met Hank."

"BIG Blue!" The boy outstretched his small arms in an effort to show the mass of Hank McCoy.

"Ja, Big Blue." Kurt pointed to himself. "I'm Kurt--"

"Little Blue!"

Kurt smiled. "Okay, I'm Little Blue. Who are you?"

"Gilberto Alexander Bass."

"That's a mouthful..."

Bert nodded. And pointed to himself. "Bert."

"I can do that."

Bert took this as a sign to crawl up on Kurt's backside until his arms wrapped around his shoulders.

"And I thought I was agile."

"Fuzzy..." Bert petted Kurt's fur, preferring it to the texture of Hank's.

"Okay, if you had been some sort of emissary of evil, I believe that you wouldn't choose the word "fuzzy"...emissaries of evil tend not to compliment me...unless they are tremendously beautiful women, but I can't tell you about that, yet." Kurt grinned as he made sure Bert was secure behind his back, then made his way to see Professor Xavier. "Let's see where you belong."

-5-

Hank and Bobby tumbled into the kitchen, where Bobby's back helped to break a vase that was on the table. "Why can't you just admit that you're jealous of me, Hank?"

"I can't be jealous of someone who is less than me!"

"So, it finally comes out! You think I'm an idiot!" Bobby grabbed Hank's arm and proceeded to twist it.

"I just don't think you know what it takes to maintain an adult relationship!" Hank took his free arm and smacked it on Bobby's head, creating a satisfying thud.

"I've had adult relationships!"

"Please, Robert, it was not unlike watching you play house. How did your girlfriends feel letting you go through the motions?"

Bobby charged into Hank's chest. "Granted, I wasn't the best boyfriend, but at least my ex-girlfriends have never betrayed me like Trish did to you. Or they've never had some sort of bitter vengeance on the X-Men like some of the others have."

"I have always suspected that it hurt your self-esteem a bit."

"Oh, yes, I'm so pissed off that Opal didn't acquire something like the Phoenix force and try to blow up the mansion!"

Hank stopped from going in and punching him again. "Yes you are! You revealed that to me on your last birthday! I remember because you were playing with the female G.I. Joe action figure I bought for the occasion!"

"No I didn't!"

"You did so! You were playing with Mademoiselle Marie, who, in spite of having a fabulous wardrobe of fishnets and a sexy tight black skirt and a chic beret, you thought she reminded you of Opal and you expressed regret that she never sought revenge on you, and you made the doll channel something called the Opal Force."

Bobby thought about this. "I think I remember."

"Then I felt left out because I didn't have a doll--"

"ACTION FIGURE!"

"Fine, action figure to play with, and you retrieved one from your then still intact Ford Escort love, Lady Jaye."

"You were Chewbacca."

"Yes." Hank nodded. "I'm always Chewie. And just this once, I thought that maybe, I could be Han Solo and get the lovely damsel, but I remain Chewie."

"No, Hank, you're not Chewie!" Bobby grabbed a few towels and put some ice in them and handed one to Hank. "You're Han! I'm Chewie! I'm there to make humorous growls and to have no one find sexy. You're always doing cool, sexy things, Hank!"

Hank looked up at Bobby. "I'm not Chewbacca?"

Bobby shook his head. "Not in my movie."

"I don't want you to be Chewie, either."

"Well, I don't want to be Luke!"

"Why?"

"Leia's hot."

"Then be Lando."

"I can be Lando."

A small silence rested between them as both applied ice to various bruises.

Hank broke it. "I apologize I made advances on her when you had just broken up and created this mess."

"I'm sorry that I'm a scared, jealous idiot." Bobby pressed the ice on his chest. "You are right, though."

"About?"

"I've never had a real relationship. And this feels like something I could definitely fuck up and that scares me."

Hank remained silent as he looked at his friend.

"What is it, Hank?"

"It's more than that, isn't it, Bobby?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's more than Annie. It's your mom, your cousin, your life...?"

Bobby shrugged. "It's been an uneasy year, sure..."

"How have you been coping?"

"I've been okay."

"Sleeping all right?"

"I sleep fine."

"I should say so." Hank shook his head as he withdrew the Altoid container he took from Bobby's car earlier in the evening. "I found this in your car. And though it says Altoids, that's not what's in there. If I'm not mistaken, that's Annie's prescription you inquired about earlier in the week."

Bobby looked down to the floor. "Yeah..."

"Did you take any today?"

"When I got out of my car -- I had another tin."

Hank sighed. "Bobby, you were drinking wine tonight...do you realize what could happen? This isn't a No Doze!"

"As I've said, it's been an uneasy year."

"I'm not letting my best friend do this to himself. I can't do that." Hank put his hand over Bobby's. "Promise me that you're going to stop this. I'm not even going to ask how long you've been taking them, but as a physician and your friend, I'm asking you to stop."

Bobby nodded.

Hank let out a breath. "I'll be watching you. These things are easily addictive."

Bobby nodded. "Okay."

Logan emerged from a darkened part in the kitchen. "Is the girl talk over?"

Hank and Bobby blushed as they nodded.

Logan grunted in acknowledgement as he walked up to them. "You boys done fightin'?"

They nodded again.

"Damn shame." With that, Logan gave Bobby a sharp blow to stomach before walking out of the kitchen.

Hank watched as Logan left and inquired, "What do you suppose that was all about?"

Bobby doubled over in pain, creating ice to ease it. "Maybe it was his vase we broke..."

-5-

Annie and Gambit made their way into the dark office. "There's something about this I don't like."

"What's dat? It's too quiet?"

Annie shook her head. "I don't have a cool code name."

"Is dat all dat's bothering you?"

"And the straps on this godforsaken thing you grabbed for me! I feel like I'm supposed to be in the talent portion of the Miss Teen USA pageant!"

"Well, you be usin' what your momma gave you."

"Correction, I'm using what Victoria's Secret gave me."

"There, dat'll be your codename: Wonder Bra."

"I'm serious, Gambit, I want a cool code name."

"Please, you're becoming an X-Man, there ain't no such thing." Remy motioned to himself. "I made up for everything by having an unbelievable sexy first name. You--" He stopped himself. "We find you a good code name after this, n'est pas?"

Annie sighed. "Oui." She reached over to turn a light on the lamp that was on her desk. "There's something else about this I don't like."

"I know, you're first name's horrible, too."

Annie kicked his tin covered shin. "I'm serious this time. This place looks like a David E. Kelley set." Annie blinked as she made her way to the wall. "In fact, I'm sure of it."

"The guy who keeps writing the lawyer shows?"

"No, the guy who keeps writing the bad lawyer shows in Boston."

"Dancin' baby guy." Gambit snorted. He hated David E. Kelley. David E. Kelley created _Ally McBeal_, to which he sacrificed every Monday night to watch it with Rogue. 

"She is evil," Scott's voice called out from Annie's communicator. Jean was also helpless against the power of _Ally McBeal_.

Annie motioned Gambit to follow her. "If this bint is playing by Kelley's rules, then we aren't going to find anything here." Annie stormed out of the office, past the secretaries pool and into a unisex bathroom. She counted off the bathroom stalls before stopping at one.

"What are you doing?"

"Have you forgotten already? John Cage from _Ally McBeal_ had a secret hideaway behind this stall. If she's hidden anywhere, that's where she'll be." Annie opened the stall door and pointed to the wall. "John had a remote. I have you and your kinetic energy."

Gambit nodded as he withdrew a penny from his pocket and charged it. "This is for adding Christina Ricci," he muttered before throwing it. After the plaster had settled, the two looked and found the room. "Good hunch."

"Yeah..." Annie said nervously as she motioned for Gambit to turn around. "But I don't remember there being a gigantic robot in the unisex."

"Maybe it was on _The Practice_...?"

-6-

Professor Xavier looked at the afro headed youth on Kurt's back with a bit of envy. He knew it was ridiculous, but he still envied that head of hair. After that moment of wishful thinking passed, he turned to Kurt. "And this is...?"

Kurt shrugged. "I'm not sure who he is."

"Gilberto Alexander Bass," Bert answered.

Xavier closed his eyes to try to remember if he knew anyone by that name. "Bobby. He's related to Bobby."

Kurt turned a cautious eye to his back. "Are you sure? Because he hasn't tried to put bubble gum in my fur yet. I consider that to be Herr Drake's signature..."

Xavier paid no mind to Kurt, staring only at the young boy who was staring intently back at him.

"Professor?"

Xavier blinked and motioned for the boy to come to him. "Would you mind leaving us alone for a minute, Kurt?"

Bert slid easily off of Kurt's back and onto Xavier's desk. "Sure. Is there anything wrong?"

"No," Xavier answered. "Something interesting.

-7-

"OW!" Annie screamed. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, OW, ow..." She rubbed her hand as Gambit advanced on the robot. "Why didn't you tell me that punching it would hurt?"

"I don' know, why did you think you suddenly became Rogue and had super strength?"

Annie let herself glare at Gambit for a second before making the choice to go into the room behind the stall. 

Once inside, she began to take notice that it wasn't any ordinary room or a set of any kind. It was a laboratory and sitting there in the corner was Dr. Emily Clay-Poole.

"Hello, Ms. Peckenpaugh."

"Clay-Drool."

"How goes your progress with your knee?"

Annie walked up to her chair. "Let me show you." She raised her legs before remembering Scott's orders. "Are you going to call off that robot?"

Emily shook her head no. "Protocol, you understand."

"Of course." Annie let her leg connect with Emily's chin. "Standard practices and procedure."

Emily wiped her chin that now was dripping blood. "That hurt. I'm not sure if that was proper patient decorum."

Annie grabbed Emily and stared her in the eyes. "Why did you do this to me?"

Emily smiled. "This isn't about you. You were just there." Annie loosened her grip as Emily stood there smiling. "I was initially targetting Trish Tilby."

"So this is about Hank?"

Emily nodded and closed her eyes in embarrassment. "Perhaps." Emily grabbed a file from the desk and handed it to Annie. "You knew that we were both New Defenders together, correct?"

Annie perused the file while maintaining contact with Emily. "And?"

"I rather enjoyed his company then. But he didn't notice me very well. And probably with good reason. I wasn't much of who I am today. I had a weak power of information absorption -- much like what you have, but mine went on a deeper level." She smiled as she held up a disk. "All I had to do was touch it and I knew."

"Hank and I didn't sleep together."

For the first time, Emily's expression darkened. "Neither did we. It's sad, too. I've learned things since the New Defenders."

"Why didn't you go after him then?"

"My divorce wasn't final and I'm not the kind of girl who thinks about cheating." Emily pointed to Annie. "Unlike some."

"So your divorce from Mr. Poole wasn't finalized--"

"'Poole'?" she asked amused. "I never married anyone named 'Poole'. I couldn't reveal who I was married to. Not if I ever wanted to establish myself in the world of the New Defenders."

Annie rolled her eyes. "Please, they let that floozy Cloud in. I doubt that there's anyone they wouldn't take in."

Emily smiled at the memory of Cloud. "Careful, it sounds like you may actually care about your boyfriend. As for me, I never cared for my Hubert, only his uncle's access to the local university's science lab."

Annie blinked. "Oh shit. You are kidding me."

Emily blinked. "What?"

"You're Emily Humbert, the Walrus's ex-wife!"

"Am not." Emily's face flushed as she protested.

"Oh, you so are!" Annie pointed at her. "Your ex-husband had the proportionate strength of a walrus and had a colorful "W" right here," she motioned to her chest, "and was defeated by the Frog!"

"I think you have me mistaken for someone else."

"Nope," Annie shook her head. "Even in the reports about it, there is mention of Hubert Humbert's wife, Emily Claytina Humbert, who was identified as a science major at Brooklyn University. And you just totally gave yourself away, do you antagonists always do this? If so, why isn't this job easier?"

Emily soured as she grew impatient. "Okay, you have me. Do you see why I kept it a secret, though? I couldn't very well go and meet Dr. Henry Phillip McCoy and say, "Hi, I'm the ex-wife of the Walrus." No good was to come of that."

Annie opened her mouth to let another quip out when something dawned on her. "I just have one question for you, Emily."

"Yes?"

"Didn't Emily Humbert die right before you joined the New Defenders?"

Emily paused. "A glitch."

"Hank didn't even know about that, did he?"

She straightened her posture. "No. How did you?"

"I got bored one night and accessed the coroner's reports on all deaths occurring in the past decade. I used to think all this memorization was just nonsense, but I see how it can be useful." Annie shrugged. "Back to you, though. The autopsy report said that you died of heart failure."

"I don't fail. I succeed."

"Ew," Annie replied. "I think I sat next to you in government my senior year of high school."

"Go on, Annie. You've been good at piecing this puzzle together so far."

"I think I understand, but I don't understand why you had to do this to me."

"Again, with you! Why do you think it's just you!" Emily threw her hands up in frustration. "Look at my clientele list. Do you see only your name on there?" She pointed to a file on her desk. "Go ahead. Open it."

Annie picked it up gingerly and flipped through its contents. "Trish Tilby, Alison Blaire, Angina Peckenpaugh, Vera Charles..." She looked back to Emily. "With the exception of me, these are all Hank's ex-girlfriends." Annie went back to the pages after Emily nodded. "There are more names here..."

"He had more girlfriends. High school, jr. high, elementary, one night stands..."

Annie flipped more in the file. "You've cleaned most of them out. Like you cleaned me out."

"Most don't even know. I just came by offering free services." Emily shrugged. "The only accident was Vera. Vera already had a hysterectomy. So I had to do something else."

Annie scrolled to find Vera's name. "A lobotomy?"

"It rhymed."

Annie felt her face go red. "These are just women who knew Hank!"

"In a way I didn't."

"That's it?" Annie laughed. "You got heartbroken, so these women have to pay?"

Emily smiled as she sat back in her chair. "You know what it's like, Annie. Being white trash. Having people like Hank walk by you and never really seeing you. Do you think that if you weren't a mutant, he'd even talk to you?" Emily crossed her legs and pointed to herself. "I worked my way through college doing some of the most demeaning work I could think of. I even married so I could get some of my college education paid for. People like Dr. Hank McCoy don't look at people like you and me and think about romance." Emily withdrew photos from a drawer and threw them out by name. "Alison Blaire, rock star. Vera Charles, librarian. Trish Tilby, reporter. Did you know he once courted a NASA rocket science?

"Bottom line, Annie, we have so much in common. We're a couple of girls who didn't grow up with the advantages that most of these women had. I didn't grow up smart, I grew into it after learning what I could do with my abilities, just as you have. And I have worked myself into becoming more than just some ignorant girl from Brooklyn, to marry someone smart and secure -- I have worked to hard to let that be spoiled by someone who I was already once was."

Annie continued to read the report. "Some of these women were pregnant when you attacked them."

"It doesn't matter."

Annie stared blankly at her for a minute before understanding. "You don't care."

"I ceased to care a long time ago."

Annie set aside the file and grabbed the letter opener on Emily's desk. "Let's see if you're that heartless."

-7-

Bobby limped his way into Xavier's office. "Kurt told me that Bert was here."

Bert waved from the desk.

"Has he gave you any trouble?"

Bert's left hand went to pat Xavier's head. "No, Bobby, we've been having a very interesting conversation."

Bobby pointed to Bert. "With him? I've never heard him say more than three words at a time."

Bert patted Xavier's head again. "Bert communicates in a different way. Your family has a history with empathy, correct?"

Bobby shrugged. "Yeah."

"Bert here has tremendous potential." Xavier adoringly rubbed Bert's head. "And he thinks that your girlfriend should start dressing you because you look as good as a sack of potatoes."

"Is that him or you?"

"I thought you looked like a sack of onions. Mainly because of your cologne."

Bobby stared at Bert. "So, another one in my family has it?"

Xavier nodded. "It's just that aside from what you may have had and your grandmother, no one has had it this much. I sensed your cousin was here...she still hasn't done much with it, has she?"

Bobby shook his head. 

"Speaking of your grandmother, how is Hannah?"

Bobby groaned. "She sent me here with wine and cheese and to tell you 'thank you for putting up with Robert'."

Xavier nodded in approval. Hannah Bass had been sending him wine and exquisite cheeses for every year that Bobby had remained with him. It was because of her fine eye for them that some of Bobby's more creative pranks had ended with him not expelling him.

"Oh, and Bobby...?"

"Yes, Professor?"

"She's a nice girl. She deserves your maturity."

Bobby rubbed the back of his neck. "Annie?"

"This means no more fighting with Hank in the kitchen."

"I'm sorry."

"I'd apologize to Jean. That was her vase."

-8-

Gambit gave one last final stomp on the arm of the robot. "Miserable piece of...!" he yelled. It wasn't that this robot was difficult to defeat, it was just that he was a bad Monty Python Black Knight gone bad.

He left the pile of rubbish and peered into the room behind the stall where he saw Annie on top of Dr. Clay-Poole. "Annie?"

Annie had something aimed at the doctor's chest. "Annie, don't do it--"

Gambit raced in to see the imperfect incision of the letter opener in Emily Clay-Poole. Annie soon took it out and made one horizontally. "Stop it."

"It's okay, Mr. LeBeau," Emily told him. "It doesn't hurt. It doesn't matter."

Gambit got a flashback to that time he crashed a birthday party at a Show Biz Pizza and saw how the animatronic puppets were made. It made him sick then, it made him sick now.

"There's a waste basket by my desk," Emily offered.

Gambit made no time in grabbing it and throwing up.

Annie pulled back the skin of Emily's rib cage and inspected. "What did you do to yourself, Clay-Drool?"

"I didn't. Nature did."

Annie's hand, only lightly covered in red, touched the inside. "If something failed, it just repaired itself."

Emily blinked in response.

"I'm going to make it stop, Emily. Would you like that?"

"Very much."

Annie took the letter opener and pried around Emily's breast bone.

Gambit pressed his communicator. "Scott...I think you need to come in here. Now."

"It's all right, Remy. It's over." Annie turned to him with an odd looking object in her hand. "I have what we came here for."

Scott came rushing in and examined the scene. "What happened?"

Annie went over to Scott and showed him. "This is her heart." Seeing that Scott wasn't understanding, she brought him by Emily's body. "Emily's mutant power was based in robotics. Her body slowly reproduced a techno-organic replica of her original biological one. I'm guessing she was okay in the beginning, but she died of heart failure a while ago. When that happened..." Annie gestured to the heart. "It isn't human. And there's no way she could be confused for a human, at least anatomically.

"Simply put, she was a robot dealing with human emotions."

Scott looked at her before returning his eyes to Emily's body. "Was this necessary?"

"It wasn't the fact that she killed and hurt other women," she explained as she showed Scott the file. "It was the fact that I don't think she could have stopped." She pointed to the body. "She's still functional. She can still live, she just needs reprogramming."

-9-

Xavier enjoyed the quietness of the war room. Lately when he came by here, Annie was at the computer, accessing the databases in search of new information. He wanted to tell her to go to bed and that she was doing fine, but knew that she'd have to learn that for herself. He knew she was afraid of him and decided to ease into that relationship with care.

Tonight, he found himself alone with the room and decided to pull up a file that he knew Annie couldn't access, or most of the members of any team for that matter.

The screen read, "Drake, Robert Linus". Xavier typed in the date "1982". Xavier knew that Bobby had remembered nothing that was truly significant that had happened to him that year. He remembered the family problems, but had seemed to have forgotten when they had first met. Xavier and Hannah Bass had been on good terms for years, she being one of the first empaths to donate her services to him. It was through that relationship that Hannah called him when she found her grandson completely blue.

Xavier had heard about Bobby from different letters and phone calls Hannah had placed to him over the years as she kept him abreast of all the accounts of empathic activity going on in her family. Her son and daughter had a medium strength at empathy, and her other two grandchildren, though, only had a trace.

Bobby was special, though. Xavier met Bobby when he was four, the age Bert was now, and was able to have a conversation through speech and telepathy with him. He and Hannah had great expectations of him until 1982. That's when Bobby shut himself off to the emotions of others, turning himself blue from cold in the process. Xavier helped him through it, and told Hannah to keep an eye on him if anything happened to him. He certainly didn't expect that cold to turn into an external thermal power.

Xavier thought one more time of his conversation with Bert and hoped that he wouldn't repeat a similar fate.

-10-

__

From the Journal of Annie Peckenpaugh

It's a week until I turn twenty-five. Growing up in Pallas, Wyoming, I never thought that I'd do much more than grow up and become a P.E. teacher and coach little league. Tonight, I held in my hands a techno-organic heart that tomorrow when I wake up, I'm going to tinker with to try and make it right. Two years ago, I couldn't perfect toast.

Scott kept looking at me to see if I was okay -- I was silent throughout most of the trip. Remy was too, but he was still green. I was thinking about what Emily said about growing up low. At some points, I couldn't help but agree with her, but her and I are not alike. I'm taking the opportunity I've been given as a chance to become more of what I can be instead of using it to be who I think I am.

Reaching this pinnacle of my life, I realize that I must continually be surprised with I can be. Anything else will be a sure fire way to drive myself crazy.


	6. Six Seeds, pt 6

Six Seeds, Part Six-A

By Mice

-Prologue-

And as everything came to an end...

-1-

May 15th

She didn't know what to think of all this. Annie stared at the motionless body of Emily Clay-Poole. She had been working on the body all week, trying to get it back to working condition, but it seemed every time she thought she had Emily working again, something would go wrong; it was if Emily didn't want to be put back together again. It wouldn't have been so frustrating if Annie hadn't claimed Emily to be her thesis. If she got Emily to work again, she'd graduate Xaviers. 

Annie also had time ticking against her. While there was no deadline for Emily, Jean was back to not supporting her enrollment at Xaviers. Annie was not privileged to find out that very few students at the school had ever been threatened for expulsion. 

One day during the past week, Annie got her courage together and approached Jean about the whole ordeal. Jean looked at her simply and said, "Misconduct." 

Jean had been quiet about her apprehensions towards her the past few weeks, but it was only with the fight Hank and Bobby had had last week that Jean had begun again. Annie wasn't even there, and Jean automatically blamed her for it.

Annie didn't profess to understand the complexity of the original five students that Xavier had taken in, but she knew that if you messed with one of them, you would get hurt. Mess with two...

She covered up Emily's body up to the shoulders with a white sheet before closing up the lab. It was late in the evening - a quick glance at her watch revealed how late. It was now May 16th. Before putting on her sweater, she looked at Emily. "I guess you're not going to wish me a happy birthday."

-2-

Bobby remained perfectly still in the bed. While waiting for Annie to come back from her lab, he had arranged himself in the exact perfect position on the bed that would make him look his best. Bobby did a quick glance at his mostly naked body as an odd thought came to his mind.

"Okay, I'm not the tallest here...and maybe I don't always eat the right foods, but I am pretty much all muscle. And compared to most guys my age, I look damn good.

"So why do I feel less than pathetic?" He remembered. "Annie."

The previous night, he and Annie had begun a conversation about her attitude towards the other women in the mansion. She remarked that the only other woman who had even the tiniest bit of body fat on her was Rogue, which worked well for Rogue, given her voluptuous figure. Bobby had tried to soothe her the best he could until she asked him that stupid question, "How do you feel in comparison to the other men?"

Needless to say, they did not have sex that night. 

Bobby decided that he was fine with not being the best physically in the X-Men. The Champions was a relief, even though an Olympian god was in the mix, the other members of the team were a flaming skull and Warren in yellow and orange spandex with a matching headband. The New Defenders had been another positive experience, until he lost his almost girlfriend to a bald headed woman. X-Factor had been the early X-Men redux.

Now Bobby found himself amidst a crowd of lady pleasers like Gambit and, the reason truly escaped him, Nightcrawler. Kurt Wagner was furry, had a tail, three fingers and was blue. "Okay, so I can't judge harshly on the blue and furry thing because of Hank..." he thought out loud. Even still, Bobby thought more woman would find him more attractive than at least Kurt. He was normal looking. That had to count for something.

He wasn't the shortest man, either, but Bobby didn't dare say that out loud -- he was sure Logan would hear him and gut him in his sleep. Warren could afford to buy whatever he lacked in his Aryan charm. 

Bobby's thoughts went to the next obvious place, how he compared with Hank. For this, he got out of bed and got some paper and a pen. He made two columns, one with Hank's name, one with his name. "Number one..."

-3-

Annie walked past her bedroom door, not quite wanting to go in yet. She kept on walking until she was out the front door and somewhere on the estate where no one else was.

"Hi, there." She was very wrong about that last part.

Annie turned her head sideways and found Scott Summers looking at her.

"Hey."

"Happy Birthday."

"You know?" Annie smiled in surprise. She didn't think anyone outside of Hank and Bobby would even pay mind to her today.

"Hank made sure everyone knew." Scott smiled, and Annie returned it. 

They remained silent for a moment as Scott looked an assortment of words that seemed like the right thing to say. "I don't agree with Jean."

It wasn't the topic she was hoping to talk about this time of night, though it was certainly predominant in her mind. "On?"

"You." He looked at her seriously through his red quartz glasses. "We've let other people come and stay after experiencing a less than desirable past history with them. With you...you have to understand that it's Jean's maternal side..."

"Lost me."

"Warren, Hank, and Bobby are her boys, especially Bobby. He was the youngest and hadn't been away from home before. He put on a good front with the boys, but - I probably shouldn't tell you that." Before Annie could ask what, Scott changed the subject. "How long have you been working in that lab?"

"Let me put it this way, I'm amazed it's Friday."

Scott nodded. "Frustrated?"

"Beyond belief."

He took a deep breath as he turned away from her. Aiming his mouth to the night sky, he shouted, "FUCK YOU!"

Annie blinked in surprise. "Excuse me?"

"Try it," he replied with a smile. "It does a lot to get rid of tension. And I promise I won't take it personally."

Annie took a deep breath before yelling, "Fuck you!"

Scott was nonplussed. "Louder."

"Fuck YOU!"

"Pennsylvania needs to hear it. Maine needs to hear it."

"But everyone in the mansion--"

"FUCK THEM!"

"FUCK! YOU!" Annie raised her hands to the sky as her mouth screamed the obscenities over and over in a vacant plot of land on the grounds. 

Scott smiled as he joined her. "FUCK!"

"YOU!"

"FUCK YOU!" they screamed in unison, and held it for what seemed like a small eternity. 

Tired, they collapsed to the ground.

"So," Annie began, "What made you think of that?"

"When I was new, I came here a lot to think. At first, I tried writing in a journal, then I tried writing poetry in a journal--"

"Love poetry for Jean?"

"I'll ignore that for now," Scott cautioned. "I'm not the most extroverted. I'm not the most introverted, either. And one day, after somehow managing to end the first line of a couplet with "orange"--"

"A couplet for your love poem of Jean?"

"I grew frustrated and just began to say "fuck". It was the only word that could express it. It was quiet at first, but then it grew into something conversational. Then it became something I would just yell until it was all out of me. Same frustrations were there, but now they were properly articulated."

"Fuck."

"Yeah. Fuck."

-4-

Jubilee turned her attention to the pool with a magnificent crash. The water was colder than usual. She quickly dismissed it because of the night weather as she let herself float back up to the surface. She quickly climbed out of the pool to repeat her performance.

She knew Harpo was waiting for her to spend more time together. That's why she was still here. With her eyes closed tight with the water encouraging her body to move to the top, Jubilee felt as she did when she was six, before anything had a chance to be complicated. Or maybe she felt as she did when she was sixteen, with it's complications, but not including the new problems she had in her life.

Again, Jubilee jumped. There was a difference between being with Bobby and letting herself be with him. She could accept why she let herself be with him, welcome attention from someone she had found attractive for a long time, attention that was mature and very needy. And it would have been fine if that was all it had been. 

Another splash. How soon had she let Harpo have sex with her after they had met? He was the first boyfriend that she had ever had and after a month and a half, they fell into bed. Again, she welcomed the attention, but wasn't sure what to think about everything else that happened.

Jubilee didn't want to admit it, but she looked at Paige, still virginal, and felt horribly envious. Paige still had something to look forward to, if any man was willing to run the gauntlet. Paige still had an opportunity for everything to be perfect. Jubilee was stuck with knowing that she lost her virginity to a drunk man who would never remember.

Under her insistence, Jubilee had insisted that Harpo to try and not use his empathy with her, and she regretted it a lot. There were nights she went with him just because it seemed to be the normal thing to do. It was very mechanical to her. Kiss, pet, thrust, thrust, thrust, roll over. She didn't know how Harpo felt about it.

Jubilee jumped in. She drew her knees to her chest and wished herself to sink to the bottom, not that it happened. She eventually rose to the surface. Instead of jumping out again, she laid with her back against the water, face toward the night sky and doubted herself. For the past three years, she had been crazy with unrequited love and all the passion that went with it. Now that she could act on all of it, it just seemed impassioned, stale and she didn't know how much longer it could go on.

The water was getting much colder. Jubilee turned herself upward to find Bobby Drake with his legs in the pool, staring rather intensely at her. "Bobby?"

"Did I fuck you?"

Jubilee ducked her head underneath the cold water again. "What did you say?"

Bobby ran a hand through his hair nervously. "I need to know."

Jubilee swam up to him and lifted herself out of the pool, suddenly very shy about the bikini she had chosen to wear. "You don't need to know, Bobby. You'll only feel worse."

Bobby let out a huge breath. "So I did."

"It wasn't your fault," Jubilee offered, deciding against touching him to show her sincerity. "I seduced you."

Bobby frowned at this. "What?"

"I kissed you, Bobby. That's what started it all. I was miserable, you were drunk and miserable. I came in to check in on you and you were just...well, you were pretty shook up." She had really wanted to say "pathetic", but that wasn't going to do much good. "I knew it wasn't a good idea, but I just wanted to..." She couldn't find it in her to complete her sentence. Jubilee found it ironic, she could talk and babble at length about anything else, as long as it didn't have to do with her weaknesses. 

"And I went with it?"

Jubilee nodded.

Bobby stared at the water. "Was it your first time?"

She nodded again.

A sick part of him wanted to ask if she had enjoyed it, to know if she received any pleasure for him. It made him feel worse.

"Bobby...are you okay?"

He waved a hand at her.

"Bobby, really, don't--"

"I'm sorry, Jubilee."

"Don't worry about it. It was going to happen sometime."

"Did I force you?"

Jubilee shook her head.

"Are you positive?" Bobby took her by the shoulders. "This is very serious and I want you to be truthful."

"Bobby, I wanted to do it! I was consenting." He let her go, still not finding any peace in it. "Bobby, what's wrong?"

"I never talk to Lorna anymore."

She squinted. "What does the Jolly Green Gidget have to do with this?"

"This is going to sound ridiculous," Bobby steadied his arms at either side of him. "Lorna was my first."

Jubilee nodded. "I kind of figured."

Bobby was about to continue, but decided against it. "No one ever thinks I can get women that gorgeous."

Jubilee smiled, knowing that she could finally provide some levity to the increasingly uncomfortable situation. "You're a lady killer. Whenever you go to town, you completely charm the college girls."

"You lie."

"I'm trying to make you feel better."

"Not working."

"Am I going to have to sleep with you again?"

"Maybe." That took the levity away completely. Bobby was surprised to hear it come out of his mouth.

Jubilee couldn't disagree that it wasn't a bad thing to hear. Despite her boyfriend and Bobby's girlfriend, and all of her thoughts on sex in general, it wasn't a bad thing to hear. 

-5-

Annie found a torn sheet of paper that had Bobby's writing on it. She picked it up to investigate.

"Hank: 5'10". Intelligent. Comforting. Witty. Genius. A doctor. Blue eyes. Blue fur (I'll still never understand it...) Great parents. Well adjusted. Can bench press way more than me. Dresses better, too. Always smells nice. Looks good in glasses. Dates successful singers and television news reporters.

"Me: 5'8". Kind of funny. Large collection of junk (that only impresses me). Accountant. Went to Dartmouth (smart?) Nice build (compared to normal guys). Blue eyes (with contacts). Dates your standard garden variety of losers - especially if they abuse me."

Annie stared at that last sentence for a long time. It didn't say, "Dates your standard garden variety of losers (present girlfriend not included)." She slowly sat herself on her bed, where Bobby had obviously been a few hours ago. It was still cold.

She knew she hadn't been treating Bobby as well as she should have, but she considered it a far cry from abuse. Annie used him the way most girlfriends use their boyfriends, from what she understood. She had made a decision to stay away from Hank, and Hank and Bobby had made up. There shouldn't have been anything wrong.

But Bobby thought she was a loser, and that brought back with it the familiar sting of her past relationship. That feeling of never being good enough for the other person, and how long did that last?

Annie remained on her bed and began to stare at the door. She and Bobby needed to talk.

-6-

Bobby found the liquor cabinet and proceeded to make himself a Long Island Molotov. It was a drink he grew fond of by force in high school. Before going to the movies, he and his friends would each get a thermos and take a bit of alcohol out of every bottle of liquor in the house. The result was quite horrible, but Bobby grew quite fond of it over the years.

He didn't notice Hank was watching him the entire time. "Hard night?"

Bobby nearly dropped Remy's bottle of Royal Crown. "Thank you for being subtle, Hank." He got out another glass. "Do you want one?"

Hank shook his head. "If I'm going to die before I'm forty, I wish it to be something of a spectacular event, involving explosions, heroism, saving a small child, and a beautiful woman crying and singing, "Midnight Train to Georgia" as I lay in her arms, dying. So you see why I can't possibly tempt my fate with alcohol poisoning."

"What's with the "Midnight Train to Georgia"? Have you been to Georgia?"

"I just think it's a lovely song. It moves me."

Bobby went over to sit by him, glancing down at what he was eating. "Brussel sprouts?"

"I like brussel sprouts. Don't judge me, Robert; I have a lighter and with all that you are consuming, I can make you the new Human Torch."

Bobby stopped and drank more.

"Is Johnny still not speaking to you after the whole fax mess?"

"It's not that." He finished his drink and set the empty glass on the table. "I'm a horrible guy, Hank."

Hank started to laugh. "You are hardly horrible, Bobby."

Bobby stared up at him and despite all the alcohol in his body, his eyes were sober. "I slept with Jubilee."

Hank pushed his bowl away. "When?"

"Last year when I was in California.."

"How?" Hank had developed a sudden morbid fascination with this. He didn't know if it was because his head was always buried in his lab or just a general state of being clueless, but the idea of Bobby and Jubilee had never entered his mind. His next thought went to the conclusion that it shouldn't have and it shouldn't have gotten into Bobby's, either.

"I was drunk. I was feeling sorry about myself...she says she seduced me."

"Do you believe her?"

"I want to." He looked up at Hank. "I almost told her about what happened with Lorna."

Hank groaned disapprovingly. "I wouldn't, Bobby. That's done and over with. I wouldn't even tell Annie about it."

Bobby's eyes widened at the thought of telling Annie. "I can't tell her! I've never told any of my girlfriends. I can scare them off easily enough on my own, thank you." He played with his glass, alternately freezing and defrosting it. "I thought Lorna was just a stupid mistake, then Jubilee tells me this and..." He knocked the glass while frozen, shattering it easily. "Logan is going to kick my ass."

"Calm down, Bobby. Logan has more respect for Jubilee than that."

"Yeah, for Jubilee, but not for me." Bobby let out a frustrated laugh. "What if the Professor finds out? That's when I'm going to get in trouble. I'll be a repeat offender, be a listed sex offender--"

"Robert, you didn't rape Jubilee!" Hank yelled in a whisper. "Jubilee is not Lorna."

"Statutory rape, Hank. She was still sixteen." Bobby paused for a moment, not knowing how to say what came next. "And I would have done it again tonight, Hank."

Hank was tempted to leave at the confession. "I would have gone for some tasteful jewelry, but cheating on your girlfriend is a great birthday gift, too."

"You're right." Bobby knew he had no reason to be angry. "I'm scared, Hank. I know Jubilee said that I didn't force her, but I keep thinking back to Lorna, I can hear her softly saying no, but not forcing me off of her at the same time. And I raped Lorna, Hank. And I wish I could tell Jubilee that, to make her understand why it's important to think about it. And I can't."

-7-

Annie felt herself being shaken awake. "Bobby...?" she asked, not yet opening her eyes.

"Many Happy Returns," Emily Clay-Poole spoke with both hands wrapped around Annie's throat.


	7. Six Seeds, pt 6b

Six Seeds, Part 6 B

By Mice

Epilogue

Sadly, for Persephone, victims rarely get to use their own voice to explain what really happened.

-1-

July 10th, Two Years Later

Annie stared at the toilet in disbelief. "How long hath it been like thith, Tom?" Her lisp was uncomfortable to her own ears, but she needed to exude authority, and she did by staring into the boys eyes directly, letting him know that she could kick his ass at any moment. It was all part of her job as the maintenance "man" of the apartment complex.

"Well, about three days..." Tom, on of the UCLA students in apartment 325 shrugged in his Ambercombie and Fitch hoodie, trying to muster up some charm in spite of the situation that was in front of them. "We thought maybe it would just go away..."

Annie looked at him, bored by the act. He and his roommates, Rich and Steve, had been taunting her for the past three months to go on a date with them. When she turned them down, they asked if she would at least buy some alcohol for them at the liquor store down the street. Sadly, the three boys were the least of her troubles.

The toilet chose that moment to break the silence as a large bubble rose to the surface. "Let me thpend a few momenth with it, Tom."

Tom inched his way out of the room as Annie took out her tool chest. She had the traditional tools in there; pliers, screwdrivers, a hammer, and so on. There was one tool in there that interested Tom. "You have a Gameboy?"

Annie got out the rest of the technological tool. "It'th more of a Gamegirl."

Tom's roommate Rich came in. "Hey, Annie, you have a visitor. Come in the living room."

"What?" She headed out. "Thith better not be like the time when you guys took off your panth and--"

"No, you yelled at us plenty for that. And Tom wasn't able to hold an erection for a month."

"Shut up, Rich! I could, too!"

Annie walked into the living room and saw a filth covered man with a bad haircut on their couch. "Thith ith my vithitor? Not likely. I like people who bathe."

Before she could leave the room, Rich grabbed her arm. "No, he asked for you by name!"

"Tho? A lot of people know my name."

"Just...talk to him. Trust me."

Annie rolled her eyes as she went to the couch. "Hello."

"Annie?" the man asked. His voice did sound familiar.

"Yeth."

"Angina Peckenpaugh?"

Annie felt a bit scared by the man's knowledge of her first name. "How did you know that?"

The man never directly looked at her, but reached out to touch her hand. "I need your help."

-2-

May 17th, Two Years Prior

Her stomach was black and blue and her throat ached. After the long day Annie had had, confronting Emily wasn't the nightcap she was looking for. 

"You took me apart and then tried to put me back together...does this look right to you, Annie?" Emily motioned at herself. There were sections of her body where skin should be, but it was only an exposed section of techno-organic flesh. Annie was quite used to the site, but having it animated and moving was quite another experience.

"What..." Annie rasped, "Do you want from me?"

"You should have killed me, Annie. I was at a weak spot. My emotions were ceasing, but with you prodding around my body all week, something came back." Emily smiled. It wasn't the usual polite smile Annie recalled her having, and that frightened her a bit. "I hated you before, Annie. But now, I _really_ hate you." Emily punched Annie in the jaw, causing her teeth to close shut in a quick matter. A bit of her tongue was caught unaware in it and was bitten off. Annie sat bruised with her mouth slowly filling up with blood. She opened her mouth to speak, but felt the blood dribble out from the side of her mouth and thought differently.

Emily cupped her face and made her look up. "All you used to do was read. Hank made you read, and read in hopes that that was all it took for you to learn. Did that work? Do you remember all the text you read?"

Annie nodded reluctantly.

Emily withdrew a small, torn off piece of paper. "How much do you love your boyfriend?"

Annie refused to answer.

"Do you even love him?"

Annie nodded.

"Tell me how much you love him."

Annie began to tear up, afraid to try to talk to her.

Emily slapped her across the face. "Open up your mouth, Angina, and tell me how much you love your boyfriend!"

"A...lot. I love him a lot." The cool air in the room and her breath stung in her mouth as she talked.

"Do you know him well?"

Annie tried to nod again, but Emily made a motion to slap her before she could. "I uthed to think tho." The speech hurt her ears. She hoped it wasn't permanent.

"You saw his note?"

"Yeth."

Emily held up the torn sheet of paper in Annie's line of sight. "Read it for me."

Annie let her tears fall as she stumbled through the text. "'Lorna Dane. I raped Lorna Dane. Lorna begged me to thop, but I ignored her. Lorna wanted Alex and they were together, but Lorna didn't tell me that. I found out on my own and I took advantage of the thituation."

"Isn't there more?"

Annie shook her head as she made her way to the second part. "Jubilee. I raped her. I completely took advantage of her when I wath drunk. I didn't care if Jubilee liked it or not, I jutht fucked her."

"And?"

Annie didn't want to look at it. She saw her name and that was enough. She shook her head, and braced herself for the hit.

To her surprise, Emily took the paper and brought it to her eyes. "Don't worry, I don't think I can stand to hear you butcher another syllable. And this is my favorite part." Emily grinned at her before going on. "Annie."

"He didn't rape me," she said pointedly, worrying about what Bobby had to say about her, and still not wanting to believe the confessional. If he claimed to have raped her, than Bobby didn't rape Lorna or Jubilee. That meant he was still a good man, albeit a bit messed up.

"It doesn't say he did." She gave a dramatic pause before moving on. "According to this, he thinks that you're abusive and shallow. That you use him because you need someone there to always hold your hand. 'She never wanted me, she only wanted my best friend,'" Emily read out loud. "'The only night I made her come was when we were horribly drunk.'"

Annie nodded at that. She had hoped Bobby didn't notice and she had lied to him about his performance.

"This is my favorite line, and I'm surprised Robert is this poetic, 'Recently, her cunt has tasted like raw sewage.'"

Annie winced. Bobby wasn't the type to be so crude. In fact, he only told dirty jokes when drunk.

"'Sometimes, I picture that it's Jubilee underneath me and not her.'"

"You're lying," Annie said to her, thankful for the lack of s's.

Emily showed her the paper. "What do you think?"

Annie knew that Emily could probably duplicate his handwriting, if all her motor functions were working correctly. Annie looked at the way Emily was holding the paper -- thumb and fingers working in a primitive fashion, and decided that wasn't the case.

"I think I thould have killed you when I had the chanth." With that, Annie ran at Emily.

-3-

July 10th, Two Years Later

Bobby sketched the patio for the second time that month. The last rehab clinic he was in, he sketched the patio forty-seven times. This sketch would be the fourteenth in his series. Three a month. He had one more to go to mark his fifth month anniversary.

"Fuck me, Bobby Drake, is that you?"

Bobby turned around and found a woman clad in black and maroon with obviously dyed black hair pinned up with white lily. Her eyelids were encircled with black make up which also encrusted her eyelashes. They eyes themselves were bloodshot. She was a patient here, though one he hadn't seen before. She did look horribly familiar, though.

"Drake, you don't remember me?" Her Long Island accent came through a little stronger this time, and he tried to think back.

"Did we go to school together or...?"

"Yeah!" She tapped him on the shoulder. "Maybe this will help your fucked up memory." She turned around so all he could see was the back of her head. She then raised her hand and spoke, "Mrs. Moultan, Bobby's picking his nose and wiping them in my hair!"

Bobby's eyes went wide. "Darlene Danuck!"

She turned around and grinned. "You remembered! But shut it about that Darlene shit, okay? People call me Dahlia now."

"I would have graduated right next to you in high school..." Bobby smiled at the thought of never being with the X-Men. The more time he was here, the more it was possible to believe it never happened.

"Yeah, instead I had to sit next to Howard Fankle. I hated you for that."

"You thought of me on graduation? I'm touched." Bobby had always wondered who missed him.

"I was kind of glad though - last I saw of you was in freshman year and you had that weird mullet thing happening with a Vanilla Ice jacket."

"Vanilla Ice was cool."

"Only to white boys like you from Long Island." Dahlia motioned to a seat in front of him. "Have time for an old friend?"

"I have nothing but time."

-4-

May 17th, Two Years Prior

Bobby opened up his Altoid tin as he went back to the pool. Hank had left to go back to bed, leaving him alone. He touched the water in the pool, remembering watching Jubilee go in and out. He swallowed two pills to help it go away.

He had been drinking all day, feeling sorry for himself. He had written many things that day, and some of the stranger ones were letters that begun to their respective women with, "I can only tell you this when drunk. I am a bit in love with you." He usually got out one or two out when he was drunk -- he had three shoe boxes full of them. Later in the night, he wrote more and the truth on the paper startled him.

Somewhere in all the confessionals, he had begun to remember some things about his Aunt Hollis.

A few weeks after he had caught his aunt and father together, he woke up to find Hollis standing over him. He had been asleep and to see her there suddenly had frightened him. When he attempted to scream, she clamped her hand down over his mouth. She whispered hateful things to him as he slowly felt something go around his neck. Hollis slowly tightened with what he later found out was her belt. He remembered feeling her hatred in a way he couldn't anymore. He remembered her laugh as she exclaimed that he was turning blue.

And that's when he heard the belt go snap. It broke in two. He remembered his aunt looking horrified at the belt and exclaiming how cold it was.

That was the first time Bobby had frozen anything.

Bobby looked at the pool once more, not happy with the memory. He weighed his options of going back in the mansion and up to his room to be alone. Or to go into Annie's room and have another bad fuck.

Or he could go for a swim.

-5-

July 10th, Two Years Later

"I'm not lying your wet spot."

"It's totally you're turn."

"You always say it's my turn!"

"And I'm always right." Jubilee grinned at her lover as she shifted her space in bed. "Besides, I have to lay down on my wet spot."

Marissa groaned. "Yeah, but I always gush out rivers. You're more...contained."

"That's a little frank."

"Oh, you're talking to me about bluntness? When I met you, you told me that I wasn't to fall in love with you under any circumstances, as hard as it may be."

"And you haven't, and I'm proud of you, Marissa."

She rolled her eyes. "Like it's so hard, Billie. Every time you come over, I always have to vacuum three times because of all the crumbs you leave behind. You're too annoying to love."

"Oh, you know it's worth it! You're sleeping with the captain of the gymnastics team at UCLA! I know things! You think that Scott Meyers is going around with a grin on his face all day because he got a good grade in his chem lab?"

Marissa shook her head. "I find it hard to believe that there was ever a time when you weren't fucking everything that moved."

Jubilee laughed. "Yeah, it's called "the time before I was born"." Just then, her cell phone rang. She grabbed it and answered it. "What?" Jubilee nodded and "uh huh'd" into the phone a few times before saying "good-bye". She then got up and started to put back on her clothes.

"Billie?"

"I've got to go, Marissa. My roommate is having some sort of crisis."

"Will I see you again soon, Billie?"

Jubilee shrugged. "We'll see."

-6-

May 17th, Two Years Prior

Jubilee stared at the ceiling as Harpo rolled over. That was something she had never expected herself to do. She couldn't imagine girls younger than herself doing that and more. She couldn't imagine girls who had started out having sex at around fourteen doing that. Not only was her front sore, now, but so was her backside.

She slowly slipped off the bed, put on some clothes, and stumbled out the door. Someone was always up in the mansion, she figured. Someone has to know if this ever gets better.

Not even two steps down the hall, she saw Annie struggling down it, dragging something behind her. "Annie?"

Jubilee didn't expect her answer her. She especially didn't think she was going to answer with, "Tho, he raped you."

The lisp caught her a bit off guard, but she felt best not to mention it. "No. We both took advantage of a situation. I can think for myself."

Her eyes never left Jubilee's. "He raped Lorna Dane."

Jubilee felt her stomach fall. "What?" She wanted to dismiss it, but the more she thought back to her conversation with Bobby earlier, the more it made sense. "Shit. So that's what he was going on about." Jubilee turned her eyes away and looked at what Annie was dragging. It was a large, slightly bloody, mass of machinery. "What's that?"

Annie held up some of it with what looked like human hair. "My thethith."

-7-

July 10th, Two Years Later

Hank McCoy sat in his lab, looking at his e-mail expectantly. Since she had left, they had written a lot. To his sadness, it was all chaste exchanges from her end. For his part, he tried to pepper his with plenty of innuendo. She in turn would respond and call him a tease. He told her it was one of his finer traits, or so Trish Tilby had told him. His ex-girlfriend Trish Tilby, the stressed.

She never responded to that.

He had encouraged her to call him, but she was against the very idea. He didn't press it too hard. She had asked him for a picture and he had refused. The last time she saw him, he was furry and blue, but had still looked somewhat like a man. Now, he was a giant cat that women stayed away from in droves...unless to pet him chastely.

He hit the "send and receive" button on his e-mail program once more and he found it there. To his sadness, though, it was very brief:

"Hank,

...what do you do with alternate timeline X-Men?

Annie"

-8-

May 17th, Two Years Prior

Hank finished cleaning his dishes before deciding to take a walk outside. He had much planned for tomorrow, as he had talked to the Professor about Annie and they had agreed that she had done enough work to graduate. They thought it was a nice touch for it to be on Annie's birthday. He had planned much of the days festivities, all the while planning to hang in the background so she and Bobby could spend time together.

Hank felt that it was important that his role in Annie's life diminish. He was even thinking of taking up residence in an alternate lab in New York. Have his own version of Walden Pond, but with a lab.

He also felt that it was important to ask her to change her mind one last time.

Hank had spent all of the previous night trying to compose a letter to sway her thinking. He knew she wouldn't go with him, but he had to try one last time.

Hank stopped by the pool as he noticed the ripples were acting a bit crazy. He stood at the edge and felt a freezing splash of water on his feet. "Bobby?" Hearing no response, Hank looked around the immediate surroundings. He was about to shake it off until he looked in the pool and saw his friend sunk at the bottom.

Hank took off his robe and dived in. The cold water hit him hard as he saw the source of it; Bobby had enveloped himself in a thin sheet of ice.

Hank grabbed his ice covered friend and went up to the surface where the ice had begun to break up. Bobby was completely blue, and not in the way he usually was. It was a blue due to a lack of breathing.

-9-

Annie banged on the door to Xavier's study. She knew he was still up, she could see the light. That didn't stop Jubilee from trying to dissuade her.

"This will all go over better in the morning."

"I don't want to wait until morning, Jubilee, I want it over with now!"

"We could go see Scott--"

Annie shook her head. "The Profether." Annie swore in her head. She hoped she wouldn't have to avoid the letter "s" for the rest of her life.

The door opened and Annie and Jubilee went in. Xavier looked at her with a bit of shock. "Annie?"

Usually when Annie talked to Xavier, her part was comprised of mostly "Yes, sir" and "No, sir". Not tonight. She threw Emily's body on his desk, stared at him and said, "I've finithed my thethith. My project wath a failure. But I've finithed my thethith. Now, I want to graduate, right now--"

"We can do this tomorrow--"

"No!" Annie shouted. "I want your word that I've graduated here tonight. And I want to leave here tonight."

Xavier let out a breath. "Ann, you can't leave because of one bad experience. You have to--"

Annie began to cry again. "I don't want to be here anymore, thir!"

Xavier allowed himself a small glimpse into her mind. His mouth deepened into a frown. "All right."

Jubilee stepped up. "You can't let her go alone, Professor."

Annie and the Professor almost spoke in unison. "Jubilee--"

"Seriously. Let me tag along with her so she doesn't get into anymore trouble." Jubilee looked at the Professor, silently pleading. She mouthed, "I can't stay here and I can't go back."

"Annie?" Xavier turned to her. "Would you mind Jubilee's company?"

In any other situation, this would call for a quip. All three knew it. All three ignored the calling for it.

-10-

July 10th, Two Years Later

Jubilee stomped up the steps to her apartment. She unlocked the door and yelled, "This better be good, Annie. I mean, this better be a REAL emergency!" Jubilee looked in the living room and didn't see anybody. She walked over to Annie's room. "Did you hear me, Peckenpaugh? I said--"

Annie poked her head through her bathroom. "Be quiet! You'll wake him up!" She motioned for Jubilee to come in.

"Him? We have a him? Wait, you have a him? I thought you were a nun now, that--" Jubilee stopped as she saw a man in Annie's bathtub, fully clothed. "Mary Tyler Moore, who is that?"

Annie reached into her overalls and withdrew a patch and handed it to Jubilee. "Look familiar?"

Jubilee nodded. "It's the X-Men symbol. That doesn't mean--"

"He altho hath it tattooed in a plathe I don't want to talk about." Annie rolled her eyes. "I think we have an alternate timeline X-Man."

"Fuck!" Jubilee exclaimed. "You see? LA gets all the weirdoes."

To Be Concluded.


End file.
